Epoch of Ephemeral Incandescence IV (Touhou Fan Fiction)
by TheOVJM
Summary: Me? I'll become a god. A god? Isn't that a bit over the top? No, have you ever given any thought how gods become gods. They aren't born into godhood. They're self made. Those who have the will to rise from the filth and muck, they are destined to greatness. And I, I will be the greatest of them all. For that is my purpose. My curse.


**Epoch of Ephemeral Incandescence IV**

"Bringing fight to the culprit? When they do not even know who it is. I thought better of you," Yukari said with dead serious look on her face as she gazed upon the army of Oni that marched towards them Yuugi, Suika and Konngara at the front.

"I was opposed to that decision. And it wouldn't have gone through but Konngara left himself out from it. He didn't want to take sides. I know if he really had had to pick a side he would have opposed the idea too but he is not the type to oppose his sister. Suika was backing Yuugi up on her plan from the very beginning," Kasen responded with at least as serious look on her face as on Yukari's.

"We really should have expected this...," Okina bridled under her breath as they watched the marching Oni army. Her statement however was only met with annoyed glare from Kasen and complete ignoring from Yukari.

"What would you suggest?" Yukari then asked and took a slight glance at Renko standing beside her.

"Hope for the best and fear for the worst. I'd urge us to wait and see. If what miss Kasen said was true and the Oni are planning to charge towards the culprit then that shouldn't be a threat to us but seeing how they're prepared for anything I'd take the humans into the village till the scene has been settled," Renko responded and turned her gaze from the Oni to Yukari.

"I suggest the same as her. Evacuate the humans and hear what they ask from us. Doing anything rash at this point would be dangerous," Ran added with calm tone.

"I see. We'll go with that then," Yukari said and turned around.

"Okina, since you're no fan of the Oni and certainly are just a threat to peaceful negotiations why wont you got down there and start organizing the evacuation?" Yukari said and glared at Okina with calm but determined look on her face. Okina simply groaned a little with annoyed tone and look on her face before leaving the company of Yukari and the others. Flandre had been following the situation from the side. To her the way the Oni thought about approaching this incident didn't seem out of place at all. She too thought that the sooner this all was settled the better. But she still couldn't tell if going for the offensive would be the best course of action. Marisa had suggested that she would do that and she was going to but now when she saw that the Oni were planning to do the same thing she couldn't help but to think if that was just a thought born out of desperation.

"So what will you do?" Flandre asked from Yukari.

"We will see if we can talk some sense into them. I sure hope we can," Yukari responded while looking at the approaching army.

"Just be careful with them. I really wouldn't want more trouble for this night than we already have had," Flandre added with unsure tone.

"To be fair, it is ironic for you to say that but I know what you mean," Yukari responded without even looking at Flandre. Flandre simply nodded and looked how Yukari, Ran, Renko and Kasen hopped down from the wall and floated down to the ground level. Flandre stayed on the wall and just looked at the scene before her. As soon as they touched the ground the Oni before them all stopped after Yuugi gave a hand signal. She, Suika and Konngara then continued forward while the rest of the Oni stayed behind. Once the two groups were about three meters away from each other they both stopped and stood still for a moment. Maybe to examined those before themselves.

"I hear you have created your own plans on how to deal with this problem of ours?" Yukari asked from seemingly confident looking Yuugi.

"It doesn't take too smart of a person to figure out that the way you have approached the situation has been a wrong one. Especially since we haven't had any kind of progress. The things have only gone worse and worse by the day," Yuugi responded but her voice sounded awfully serious. It didn't have that normal boastfulness that it usually had.

"And now you want to charge on without even knowing what dangers might await you on the outside of the barrier? Your recklessness will only lead you to a disaster," Yukari simply responded with dead serious tone and look on her face, the tip her umbrell piercing the ground as it was pressed against it like the tip of a sword.

"Your caution has gotten us nowhere. Having a disaster is better than not having anything. At least we could learn something," Yuugi retorted and glared at Yukari.

"No, you're only in it for the bloodshed, for the violence," Yukari said without changing he tone. Their conversation stopped for a moment as Yuugi took a second to just look at Yukari like measuring her strength.

"Why does the reason behind doing something matter if the outcome is a noble one? You want to end this as bad as we want," Yuugi then said and enhanced her poise.

"The reasons and ways of achieving the cause, be it noble or terrible, matter more than you might think," Yukari retorted and showed no signs of agreeing to anything Yuugi would propose.

"Which is the reason why we're offering to do it. You wont need to sully your hands by breaking your silly code or something. Just let us to the outside world and we'll handle the rest. In the end, who or even what could stand before an army of Oni... not you certainly," Yuugi said and finally let out a hint of cockiness by grinning slightly.

"And if I don't allow that?" Yukari asked and was seemingly getting annoyed.

"We will not be taking a no as an answer. You will either let us go peacefully or we'll make you do it by force," Yuugi roared suddenly.

"This is exactly what I meant. You would tear this whole place down just to get to the end goal. The reasons and ways matter, for the goal will be a lot different depending on it. And no, I will not let you go. Your conquest would only spiral out of control and besides I cannot open any gaps to the outside world without risking the whole barrier ripping apart," Yukari rumbled back at the Oni before her.

"That is the main reason why I haven't taken any direct action regarding the possibility of the culprit being on the outside. It is too risky. I would endanger the barrier protecting the youkai and humans of the Gensokyo. And ensuring the barrier doesn't fall has to be our main priority," Yukari continued and glared Yuugi directly to her eyes.

"What is it use to keep the barrier up if it only serves to delay the end? Now, I will ask one more time you to let us into the outside world and settle this for once and for all. I will not ask again," Yuugi growled as a responce.

"And if I don't bow to your idiocy?" Yukari simply asked with defiant tone and look on her face.

"Then you'll blow into PIECES," Yuugi yelled, threw one of her blades backwards, grabbed the chain attached to it and pulled it back sending it whirling towards Yukari. Yukari showed no signs of reacting as the blade flew quickly towards her. Just as it was about to hit her straight to her face there was a metallic clang to be heard and the blade stopped and bounced back just as if it had hit some sort of a wall. There were few sparks flying out of this invisible object Yuugi's blade had hit and few ripples forming into the air. As if there was a surface of a body of water. It was then when everyone finally turned their gazes away from Yuugi and Yukari and towards Renko who seemed calm but clearly made few hand gestures. She had stopped Yuugi's blade.

"You will not cause another battle here! We've already our fair share of bloodshed for this day," Renko uttered and stared at the Oni before her.

"Hah, we can wait for tomorrow. Any way you want it," Yuugi said and laughed sarcastically.

"No. There will be no battle. Let us settle this the old way," Kasen uttered as she stepped between Yuugi and Yukari.

"What are you proposing?" Yukari asked and looked at Kasen with doubtful look on her face as did Yuugi. At first Kasen took a quick glance at Yuugi and Yukari before continuing.

"I'm proposing a duel. Both sides will choose someone to be their fighter and then the two battle it out. Without spellcard rules. The winner being the one dictating what we shall do," Kasen said with serious tone and look on her face. There was a long silence. Everyone were looking at each other and low chatter had started to appear from here and there. The silence however was broken by Yuugi's laughter.

"Well then. I'm all up for your suggestion... if there is anyone brave or foolish enough to face me," Yuugi said and looked around herself with her arms stretched to her sides flamboyantly. The other youkai and humans were looking at each other not sure what to do. Flandre was amongst them following the situation from the wall. She could feel a certain fear creeping up her spine. That she would be the one who would have to face Yuugi. She really didn't want to. A chatter started to spread amongst the people on the wall. When Yuugi had declared that someone would have to fight against her everyone realized that not anyone could just decide that they'd fight. Especially now when spellcard rules were thrown out of the window. Everyone knew that in an open combat Yuugi could stomp pretty much anyone. Flandre didn't like this one bit. She knew that she was amongst the candidates for this duel. Others potentially being Yukari, her servant Ran, Okina and maybe Kasen although it seemed that Kasen would want to stay neutral in all of this and wouldn't fight against Yuugi. She also doubted that Renko or Junko would fight against Yuugi since she didn't know what were the extends of Renko's capabilities and Junko wouldn't probably care enough to attend another battle. Needless to say that the tension was growing stronger amongst the humans and youkai along with Yuugi's confidence. That was until Yukari made a hand gesture and upon seeing which everyone fell silent.

"I accept these terms," Yukari simply uttered, opened her fan and covered her mouth with it. At first Yuugi just looked at Yukari but then she grinned.

"So... Will you be the one taking me on?" Yuugi simply asked and looked at everyone behind Yukari.

"It should be obvious. These are my rules we follow so I should be the one defending them," Yukari responded and stared at Yuugi from behind her fan. Yuugi stared back at her with ever widening grin. She then took her blades that were hanging from her vaist and started walking towards Yukari.

"You would be surprised to know how much I've wanted to duel you, and to do it like this, unhindered by any rules... This'll be sublime," Yuugi almost exclaimed with excitement.

"Oni nature... it can't be helped it seems," Yukari simply responded and lowered the fan from her face. She too then started approaching her foe. The youkai and humans surrounding them started to back away to give the two some space and to not get tangled in the fight by accident when the two would start to go at it.

"Come at me," Yuugi then finally exclaimed after a brief silence, took a tighter grip on the handle of the blade on her right hand, started to spin it and readied to throw it at Yukari. Yukari on the other hand only puckered up her brows as she stood still and looked how Yuugi launched the blade from her right hand straight towards her. It was like a comet whirling through the air and with the speed Yuugi gave it, it would reach its target in a blink of an eye. But in that blink of an eye Yukari was already gone and the blade simply plummeted to the ground where she had stood sending a good portion of dirt flying. It was then when the grin from Yuugi's face vanished as she felt a cold breath on her neck.

"Right behind you," Yukari simply uttered before Yuugi turned around in a flash and tried to slash her with the blade on her left hand which was blocked by Yukari with a single flick of her wrist and the fan in her hand. Sparks were flying has Yuugi recoiled from Yukari's block but the grin soon returned to her face as she made a pulling motion with her right hand pulling back the blade she had thrown with the chain attached to it. The blade flew past Yuugi's head and straight towards Yukari. This time Yuugi threw her second blade as well. With two swift but graceful movements Yukari redirected both of them and let them hit the ground behind her. But at that moment Yuugi grabbed a hold on to both chains attached to her blades and pulled. But instead of pulling the blades back she leaped from the ground launching her straight towards Yukari. In one fast motion Yukari summoned a barrier in front of her shielding her from Yuugi who was flying at her with such force that it actually pushed Yukari back a little even though Yuugi was stopped by the barrier Yukari summoned.

After being stopped by the barrier, Yuugi simply dashed backwards while letting go of the chains on her blades so that she wouldn't pull them out from the ground. Yukari on the other hand cancelled her barrier and looked at her opponent. The whole fight thus far had been really well visible to the 'audience' on top of the wall surrounding the human village. Flandre was staring at the two with concerned look on her face.

"This is going to get out of hand. What good do they think will come out from that?" Flandre simply muttered while biting her thumb. Her stress was easily visible. She was not the onlyone fearing that the fight would lead to actual deaths but she also feared that it wouldn't bring peace at all. In fact she was fearing the opposite. If Gensokyo was to fall into anarchy her plans of leaving Gensokyo would certainly face difficulties. Maybe even become impossible. She still didn't know if Marisa's theory would work and if it didn't her only other option would be Yukari who was currenlty risking her life in a duel to the death.

It was then when Flandre felt a hand touching her shoulder.

"Do you now understand my distaste for the Oni? Their existence in themself is a threat to balance and peace of Gensokyo," Okina said with serious face while looking at the fight below them.

"Can't say I share your thoughts but I do however hope they could have stayed underground for a little longer," Flandre responded after a brief glance at Okina.

"Why's that?" Okina asked and looked at Flandre.

"It's uhh... Bah, what the hell do I even gain from keeping this a secret. It's Marisa, I went and talked to her and... well, she has a plan. Well more of a theory than a plan," Flandre said with frustrated and a little stressed tone.

"Go on, I'm listening," Okina said with much more serious and intrigued look on her face.

"Well, she proposes that the culprit to this incident is by almost absolute certianty in the outside world. According to Marisa all the evidence would point towards it. And... well, me not really being from this time... Basically she told me to get to the outside world, find the culprit and be done with this once and for all. She told this to me because she believes that I have some special connection to this incident," Flandre explained as best she could.

"Well now you're just stating the obvious. From the moment we learned that it was the timelines collapsing we knew that you're somehow connected," Okina said and scratched her hair like she was somehow disappointed.

"No, I don't mean it like that. It seems that this incident, somehow, doesn't affect me. You told that you all have seen your doppelgangers from other timelines appearing. Some have even gone mad after being 'absorbed' by their own timeline. Yet, the only time I've seen a copy of myself was when I arrived here. Flan. And after her... well, death, I haven't seen a single copy. Don't you find that a little odd?" Flandre explained to Okina whose expression changed to more thoughtful.

"What you propose does sound interesting. And a little suspicious," Okina mumbled while rubbing her chin. She then lifted her gaze and looked at the battle once again.

"We just have to hope that these two will get their argument sorted soon," Okina continued with annoyed tone and look on her face.

"Aren't you worried that this could cause even more carnage if their fight gets out of hand?" Flandre asked with worried tone.

"I wouldn't worry about such things. Think about it. What you see before you are one of the most important figures in Gensokyo. You'd think that even if they agreed to duel to the death we could allow that to happen?" Okina responded. It was then when Flandre realized how much closer Kasen, Ran and the others were standing to the battle than the rest of the youkai and humans. The same went for Suika and Konggara as well on the side of the Oni.

Below Okina and Flandre the duel continued. Yukari had started to respond to Yuugi's attacks with a barrage of beams and bullets. Although, these weren't just for the show like in a danmaku duel. One could easily see the difference, that this barrage was meant to hurt. Yuugi on the other hand cared little for magical combat on her end and kept on relying her brute strength and her weapons that she used to move around Yukari quite quickly. Though no matter how quickly she tried to evade and attack her, her speed was no match when Yukari decided to gap herself out of the way. And this was often. Yuugi was getting visisbly frustrated. Within the last ten seconds Yukari had gapped herself at least seven times to a new location and each time Yuugi would throw her blade at her she would have already vanished again.

"Feel ready to give up?" Yukari's voice could be heard echoing from all around the battlefield although she wasn't visible.

"Oh, I'm just starting to have fun," Yuugi responded with clearly irritated tone and look on her face. It was obvious that all the fun she had had diminished when she couldn't land almost a single hit onto Yukari.

"Then let us continue," Yukari responded and in that instant at least dozen gaps filled with the eyes that one could see within Yukari's realm opened all around Yuugi. She quickly span around only to realize that she was surrounded. Then, one after another, the eyes within the gaps started shooting lazers that surrounded Yuugi. At first she simply jumped out of the way of the lazers but as the amount of lazers grew it became harder and harder for Yuugi to dodge. So instead of continuing to dodge Yuugi grabbed the chain attached to her blades and started to spin while furiously whirling the blades around her. This seemed to almost create a wall around her as the blades and all the matter they raked from the ground blocked the lazers indefinitely. Then, slowly but surely, Yuugi started bringing her blades closer together so that they would not be on the opposite sides of the rotation at all the time. As soon as the blades span side by side Yuugi let them crash into the ground and with the momenttum that the chains attached to the blades carried Yuugi launched herself into the air and straight into one of Yukari's gaps. In almost a second after Yuugi had charged into the gap all of them closed at once. Then another second later a new gap appeared and everyone saw Yukari and Yuugi both flying out from it. Yuugi was clearly holding onto Yukari as she struggled to free herself from her grip. Then just before the two hit the ground Yukari released a pulse of energy that sent both of them flying away from each other. This lifted a dust cloud and when the dust had cleared just enough that the two figures were visible again everyone could see that both of them were still standing and ready to go at it. And ready they were because immediately after gaining visual to Yukari again Yuugi took her blades and with few powerful swings she threw them at Yukari who simply walked towards her and with two powerful swipes of her hands sent the blades flying away from her again. Yuugi simply growled and started running at her foe readying her fist with all her might. Yukari on the other hand kept walking at her with menacing look on her face and the glow that started to get stronger around her hands indicated that she was ready with some kind of spell. The two headed for each other for what felt like minutes while it was only about couple of seconds before they were almost on touching distance and ready to give whatever they had in store to their enemy. And that would have happened if it wasn't for something interrupting them. If wind could cause thunder that would be the best way to describe the sound that erupted when a huge barrier formed between them out of thin air, lifted an enormous dust cloud and caused the two to have to take few steps back out of surprise

"What is this!? Yuugi growled in frustration as she had recovered from the surprise and tried to charge through the barrier which turned out fruitless. Yukari just stayed silent and gazed at the barrier for a moment. She then seemed to think for a moment until turning her head towards the human village and the humans and youkai watching the duel. Amongst whom she saw Renko looking at the two with serious yet somehow enterntained look on her face.

"I think I've seen enough. Now let us solve this argument," Renko uttered and started approaching the scarred battlefield and the two duelists who were both looking at Renko quite confused.

"Maribel, you've really become a different person I once knew. You once were always eager to explore, try everything, discover everything even though it sometimes wasn't the brightest idea. Now it seems you really can't get out from your own safety buble and demand it to stay that way. What has gone into you?" Renko then asked while letting out a confused laughter.

"It has become the responsibility of mine. To make sure I would some day get you back, I would need this bubble and to maintain that bubble I would have to preserve the balance at all costs," Yukari responded while looking at her friend.

"You have me back now. Why do you still have to keep acting like a dictator?" Renko persisted with even more confused look on her face.

"Can't you understand that your actions of trying to keep this bubble together danger more lives than it protects and that if we don't act, think and be open minded to opportunities to resolve this menace your actions will be in vain no matter what?" Renko insisted as she had stopped walking after reaching the edge of Yukari's and Yuugi's battlefield.

"And what if you're wrong? What if we don't find answer from the outside. What if our actions to resolve all of this will be fruitless after all? I am just trying to salvage and protect all that there is left," Yukari responded to her friend who was looking at her with tilted head.

"If we don't stop this there will be nothing left. So come on. The only things in life that you will regret are missed opportunities. Especially ones like these where it could literally be the difference between saving everything... or losing it... again," Renko said with much more quieter and hesitant tone. It was those words that seemed to shift something inside Yukari's mind and made her take a single steps towards Renko.

"Then what can we do? What do you suggest is the best course of action?" Yukari asked with compassionate but still somewhat doubtful look on her face.

"You have me and behind you you got the largest concentration of raw power in Gensokyo. Let us see if they truly can push the fight away from Gensokyo while Gensokyo still exists," Renko said with much more confident grin on her face.

"The barrier will not withstand that. If I tear even a single hole to outside world the rift cannot be closed again. It's like a balloon full of water. One rip and the whole thing collapses," Yukari responded while shaking her head with serious look on her face. Yuugi had stayed silent this whole time and listened as Yukari and Renko talked. But now even her interest had peaked when Renko announced her interest in helping the Oni to get to the outside world.

"But with a little tape you can contain that hole and keep the whole thing from collapsing onto itself. And aren't you forgetting that I literally am the barrier you hold so dear. I can open a controlled hole into the barrier and I can as well close it. It will require some strength I admit but I've had all this time while I was on the moon to gather it," Renko said while tapping the side of her head with her finger with a confident smile on her face.

Yukari then looked at Renko for a moment. Like silently judging if she was up for the task she proposed to complete. Then she looked at Yuugi who couldn't help but to grin when she glanced back at Yukari. Renko's plan clearly pleased her. Yukari then finally sighed deeply.

"Fine. I'll trust your instincts on this one. I truly hope that you're absolutely certain of what you're doing," Yukari said with strict but humble tone. Renko then rose from the ground and gently levitated closer to Yukari.

"In times like these, can you really be sure of anything?" Renko simply replied to witch Yukari just sighed and shook her head. Renko then floated past Yukari and towards Yuugi. She landed before her and looked at her.

"And what do you say? Do you find what I proposed satisfying to your original plan?" Renko asked from Yuugi like she didn't know the answer already. Yuugi then grinned, rubbed her chin and turned around to face her Oni comrades.

"So what do you say guys? The weird woman here has plan that involves us? Do we accept it?" Yuugi yelled at the crowd behind towards which she had turned. At first it was silent with few murmurs coming from the crowd until few individuals lifted their hands in the air and started shouting with more and more joining them. Finally, when Suika stepped from the crowd and yelled a war cry while liftening her hand in the air too the rest of the mob joined her and soon the air was filled with roars and cheers from the Oni army. Yuugi then turned back towards Renko, pulled her blades from the ground, put them to her back and gave Renko a wide grin.

"Seems like you got yourself a deal sis," Yuugi said and offered her hand to shake Renko's but Renko refused by saying, "No thanks, I'd like to keep mine intact."

"Heh, suit yourself," Yuugi responded, laughed a bit and started walking towards the rest of the cheering Oni. Renko on the other hand turned around and headed back towards the human village whose inhabitants and the youkai protecting it all seemed releived and bit shaken. Yukari then followed after her. Although at a slower pace. She almost seemed like a child who had just done something they were forbidden from doing and was just scolded for it. It sould go without saying that it was an unusual sight.

"Wow, you handled the situation better than I had hoped it would," Kasen said as soon as Renko rached her. Renko smiled gently back at her.

"Well, can't deny myself that it went so smoothly that even I wouldn't have expected it," Renko responded and shrugged gently. She then leaned a bit forward with much more allusive look on her face.

"It also came in handy to know where Maribel... uh, Yukari, is the most sensitive," Renko continued and winked and after doing that glanced behind her to make sure Yukari hadn't heard or noticed what she had just said.

"So, what now?" Ran asked after she too had walked up to Renko.

"Well first things first, we have to get the Onis on their way. In the end that was our agreement. After that though... to be honest we just have to wait and see how this unfolds. If we can send the Oni succesfully to the outside worl-," Renko responded but was cut short by Ran.

"Succesfully? You sounded awfully certain that your plan would work just a moment ago," Ran said with a little nervous tone and look on her face.

"I had to. It was the only way to get your master to listen to me. But what I said is just the best theoretical outcome that could happen from me opening the barrier," Renko explained with much more serious face.

"Wonderful...," Ran responded.

"What choice do we have? You only live once in the end... most of the time at least. And we wont be living that long if we don't do anything," Renko added and chuckled playfully.

By this time everyone near and on the walls of the human village had realized that a peace had been achieved and joyful chatter and random cheers could be heard from the crowd. Flandre and Okina had realized this too and Flandre couldn't be more releaved. As soon as she saw Yukari, Renko and the others returning back towards the wall she jumped down from it immediately and started running towards them. Okina did the same, although just straight up jumping down wouldn't be suitable for her dignity. Flandre knew that now would be a perfect time to tell Marisa's idea to Yukari as well since Oni would leave to the outside. Flandre thought that she could be able to persuade her to let her go as well. By the time Flandre reached Renko and the others the look of quilt had already left Yukari's face and she was now walking beside her friend. They then stopped when they saw Flandre running towards them and Okina following after her.

"What is it Flandre?" Kasen asked when Flandre finally stopped before them and took a curious look at behind them where the Oni horde seemed to be still cheering.

"Are you sending the Oni to the outside world? I mean, you're seriosuly doing that?" Flandre asked with curious and almost ecstatic tone.

"Yes, why such a reaction? What are you up to?" Kasen asked with a bit strange look on her face.

"Flandre, tell them," They heard Okina saying as she had finally caught up with Flandre since she hadn't been bothered to run. Flandre took a quick glance at Okina behind her before turning back towards Kasen and the others.

"I will go to the outside world together with the Oni," Flandre blurted out. There was a brief silence. Yukari, Renko, Kasen and Ran looked at each other.

"Why'd you come up with something like that?" Renko asked with doubtful tone. Flandre then took a one more quick glance at Okina who nodded to her slightly. Flandre then truned to face Yukari, Renko, Kasen and Ran and started explaining. She told them everything she had told Okina but once again left out the detail that it was Marisa who had come up with everything she said. She still figured that Marisa was a quite sensitive topic. The looks on their faces was the same Flandre had seen on Okina's face when she had told her the idea and this made Flandre quite optimistic. It would seem that they too would realize the possibility in that plan. That was until Yukari lifted her hand to cut Flandre's explanation.

"I admit, what you propose does sound interesting, but you going to the outside world would be too much of a risk," Yukari said with calm tone and look on her face.

"What risk?" Flandre then asked and tilted her head. She was a bit irritated that she had been cut short even though she had mostly explained everything to them.

"Oni going to the outside world in hopes of resolving this isn't our business. We just have to aid them in it so that we could reach an understanding. Once they're on their way we will just have to wait. If what they propes happens and they manage to pinpoint the source of this incident then it's a completely different story and we will be sure to join them," Yukari explained while looking at Flandre with serious look on her face.

"But you still haven't told me what risk it would be for me to leave with them," Flandre asked and put her arms akimbo.

"It's that I don't believe they will find anything... or even return. Of course we will make sure to keep a communication up with the Oni through Reimu's Yin Yang orbs... even though I'm afraid it is pointless," Yukari said and sighed deeply.

"How can you be so sure it is pointless?" Flandre insisted and tilted her head.

"Think about it. Gensokyo is falling apart, everyone is desperate to resolve this incident even though we don't have the slightest clue who is behind this, how they're doing it or where to even find them. If they're in the outside world they must be prepared for us to attack them. They wouldn't be stupid enough as to not have a plan for our attack. And on top of that, what if they are not in the outside world? What if they're still here with us? We would be just sending valuable forces away for nothing," Yukari explained and the look on her face turned into more and more uncomfortable.

"But we still have to do something. Why are you so afraid to take any risks?" Flandre asked and put her hands to her vaist.

"BECAUSE I'M UNCERTAIN OF EVERYTHING," Yukari finally yelled in frustration. Flandre took a one step back in shock and surprise of Yukari's sudden outburst.

"This is the first time in thousands of years when I'm left utterly clueless as to what is going on and since I can't do any decisions knowing if it's the right or wrong I feel vulnerable," Yukari explained while covering her face with her hand.

"Oh so you finally know how the rest of us feel," Flandre said with sarcastic tone and look on her face.

"Yes... I believe so. But still, there's still one reason why we cannot let you go with the Oni," Yukari said and regained her posture. Flandre looked at her and tilted her head.

"You're the one carrying the stop watch with you. No matter how you look at it, that is our last trump card we have and we cannot in any scenario afford to lose it to our enemy, who ever they might be," Yukari said and stared Flandre into her eyes with much more serious look her face once again.

"Oh shit! The watch. I can't tell them I gave it to Marisa," Flandre thought to herself after she realized that Yukari and the others still believe she had it.

"If I tell them I gave it to Marisa I can say buy buy to my plans, and even if I don't they wont let me leave," Flandre thought as Yukari and the others stared at her. They then looked at each other and started walking past Flandre towards the village. Okina patted Flandre on to her shoulder before she too started walking back with Yukari and the others.

"Damn it, I didn't think it would back fire this way," Flandre muttered as she stood in place while the others returned to the village to make the preparations. She was frustrated. She didn't want to disappoint Marisa. If she believe that Flandre could pull this off then she would believe so too and would do anything to do her part but it seemed that no matter what she tried it would never go smoothly. Flandre sighed in frustration, kicked a pebble and started walking back towards the village too.

As Flandre returned to the crowd of youkai and humans she could see how happy everyone around her was. This made her even more frustrated and even angry on some level. She was getting tired. Tired of always being told what to do and not to do. The amount of times the things had gotten her way without hindrances or someone trying to stop her were miniscule. Flandre climbed back on top of the wall and looked at Yukari and the others who were now joined by Youmu and Alice. They were going to go get the Yin Yang orbs and do the other preparations what ever they might have been, there was no doubt about it.

"Of course, Yuugi gets her way but when it comes to me... GAH," Flandre muttered and growled. She then grabbed a spear from the ground that had been left laying there by one of the human villagers. Flandre clenched it tightly and contemplated how she should break it. She needed something to pour her frustration into. She was holding the spear with trembling hands, that's how much she wanted to snap it in half, until she lifted her gaze from the spear and searched for Yukari and the other with her eyes. She didn't see them anywhere but instead she saw Remilia standing on a roof top couple houses away from her. The two were staring at each other for a moment. Flandre didn't know why Remilia was standing there but after few seconds she looked back down at the spear and in an instant she almost tossed it back to the ground. She then took a deep breath and turned around.

"Better fight to get what you want than to always get it for free," She muttered and was about to sit down when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to look and saw that it was Junko.

"True. Learn to control your hate and it'll serve as your most powerful weapon," Junko said while looking at Flandre.

"A weapon is useless if you have nothing to use it on," Flandre responded with frustrated tone and look on her face.

"Then find something to use it on," Junko said with a hint on leniency on her tone, patted Flandre to her head and started walking away before adding, "Remember, you are not alone. There are others who pursue the same goals as you. You just have to realize it." Flandre looked at Junko for a moment with a bit confused look on her face. She then turned her face away from Junko to think about what she had just said.

"I just have to realize it? What in the world did she mean by that?" Flandre asked from herself in her thoughts while walking to the edge of the of the wall. She then reached down to sit on the edge of the wall but upong sitting down she felt like she had sat onto something that had been on the wall. She tried to feel what it was but there was nothing on the serface she had tried to sat on. She figured it was her imagination but upon sitting again she felt the same. Now she stood up and went through her clothes to see if a pinecone or something like that had got stuck to her clothes. After a moment she found something stuck to her bloomers under her skirt. She pulled it off and took a look at it. She almost wasn't going to believe her eyes. It was a small phial with blue slightly luminescent liquid in it. There was no question about it, it was the same liquid Marisa had given her on her birthday before all of this had happened. It was the invisibility potion.

"But how? How can this be... Wait... Marisa...," Flandre uttered when she realized that Marisa must have given it to her when she found Marisa from her house after she had ran away from Alice's accusations.

"Of course. She must have had it since in this timeline she never gave it away. She knew I'd need it... or at least figured I could need it," Flandre mumbled to herself while looking at the awfully familiar looking phial in her hands.

"Your were the one starting all of this, so I'll use you to put an end to this as well," Flandre thought to herself while holding the phial in her hands. She then quickly looked around herself and put the phial into her pocket before someone could see her with it and start suspecting. It was around the same time when she heard and saw Yukari and the others returning from the village. It appeared they had finished their preparations. Flandre quickly looked around herself and dashed into the nearest crowd she could find. She wanted to follow them and see what they would do and if she could still slide out with the Oni.

The gates of the human village opened and Yukari, Renko, Kasen and Okina walked out. Kasen was carrying the Yin Yang orbs with her as they walked through the crowds surrounding the gates of the human village towards the Oni who were still waiting near the treeline. When Yuugi saw them approaching she put her hands onto her vaist and made a slight grin. Suika was waiting with much more serious look on her face and her arms akimbo. And then there was Konggara who was standing slightly away from the two with expressionless look on his face holding his sword on the ground like a walking stick.

"So, ready to get this show on the road?" Yuugi asked once Yukari and the others were close enough for them to hear her. After that Kasen stepped forward while carrying the orbs. She walked up to Yuugi and the other Oni and gave the other orb to her.

"While we're letting you to go to the outside world we still require you to be able to communicate with us. This orb makes it possible," Kasen simply uttered and looked at Yuugi with serious look on her face.

"You sure you don't want to tag along sis'? Who knows what we could find... Maybe a hand?" Yuugi asked playfully and tilted her head a little before taking the orb from Kasen's bandaged hand. Kasen simply stared at yuugi without saying a word.

"Well suit yourself, I'll be sure to bring it to you as a souvenir if I stumble upon it," Yuugi continued as Kasen turned around and walked back to Yukari and the other sages. It was Yukari's turn to now step forward once Yuugi had the orb.

"I trust you understand your mission. You are to find the culprit and eliminate them. Nothing more, nothing less. We'll be keeping our eye on you with that orb. We do not wish you to start anything violent with the denizens of the outside world if it isn't absolutely necessary," Yukari said with dead serious look on her face.

"Don't worry you have my word on that," Yuugi simply said and chuckled slightly.

"We know very well what we can and cannot do on the outside world, you can count on that," Konggara uttered with calm and reassuring tone. Yuugi glanced at him and rolled her eyes while grinning playfully.

"Good. Now let's get you on your way. We will send you out on the northern border of Gensokyo," Yukari said and signed the sages that they would head there immediately. The look on Yuugi's face brightened up on that moment and she turned towards the Oni army behind her.

"You heard the hag! We're going to war today," Yuugi announced loudly which was met with cheers from the horde of Oni who then turned around and started walking back into the forest from where they had initially appeared. The sages looked how Oni started marching north and when every Oni was now on their way, Yuugi took a quick glance behind herself and looked at the sages.

"Coming or not?" Yuugi said and laughed a little.

"Let's get this over with," Yukari said and sighed. The other sages nodded and started following the Oni horde making its way to their designated meeting point.

They made their whole way to the northern border by foot. Yukari and the other sages didn't know wether this was to annoy them by making the journey intentionally slow or did Oni just prefer going by foot. Nevertheless the journey went by pretty much silently. At least for the sages. There was occasional chatter in the Oni horde but no major conversation ever sparked. While they walked through the forests and hills they spotted an occasional youkai laying unconsciouss in the wilderness. At first when they went to investigate these individuals they didn't understand why they were there but soon realized that it must have been the effect of the being absorbed by one's own timeline wearing off. Reimu too had been unconsciouss when they had left so they figured that the best course of action must be to just leave them be.

"Let's hope thay recover eventually," Konggara uttered as they passed by a slightly larger group of unconsciouss youkai. Most of them were just feral youkai who hardly had any intelligence but every now and then they could see a face they recognized. For instance they recognized Wriggle hanging from tree branches as they walked past the forest surrounding the Shining Needle Castle. When they finally reached the Tanuki Forest they started to realize that the time for Oni to be send through the barrier was nearing. The Tanuki Forest wasn't that large so the walk through it didn't take that long and during that time some of the Oni started getting visibly agitated. The atmosphere was starting to get more tense each minute wich resulted in the Oni nor the sages realizing that there was a pair of eyes keenly observing them. But even with all the pairs of eyes within the Oni horde and the sages together with them no one could notice anyone or anything following them. Such suspicions weren't even raised.

Flandre was looking at the progressing mob from a fair distance away while being shrouded by the invisibility potion. She had consumed some of it while she was in the crowd around the gates of the human village and slipped out.

"Shouldn't be long until we reach the border. Now I only have to figure out how I slip past all of them. I may be invisible but that doesn't mean someone like Yukari couldn't sense me," Flandre thought to herself while she looked how the Oni made their way through the forest. Flandre kept following them silently waiting for the moment when Yukari would command them to stop but when they exited the forest and entered the grassy hills behind the forest Flandre was starting to get confused. By all logic they should probably be at the edge alrady.

"Why are they still going?" Flandre thought. Nevertheless she kept following. By this time she could notice how Oni were starting to get really stressed. It seemed that they too were confused as to why they were still going. This went on for another twenty minutes when Flandre was finally struck with this weird sensation. As if something was wrong but she just couldn't put her finger on it. She kept her eyes on the mob she was following while still making mental notes about the terrain they passed. This was the furthest she had ever been from her home. She then saw the Oni starting to climb yet another hill and it was at that moment when it clicked to her. It was the same hill they had climbed when they had exited the Tanuki Forest. She then took a quick look behind her and would you look at that, the Tanuki Forest was just behind them. Flandre almost fell to her back from the sheer shock. They had made no progress during the last twenty minutes they had walked.

"What the hell is going on? Why are we still just barely outside the forest?" Flandre thought to herself while staring at the forest behind her and the ress of Gensokyo that stretched out before her eyes in the distance. It was around that point when the Oni too seemed to realize what was going on. They hadn't progressed at all since they had left the forest. Commotion was starting to break out as the Oni were starting to freak out about the realization. Some were getting seemingly angry and were turning their attention to the sages following them. Flandre decided to move closer to see what was going to happen.

As the Oni were raving on how they had been deceived and that the sages were going to betray them Yukari and Renko stepped forward looking around themselves.

"You two might want to start explaining what is going on. You said you'd take us to the border and yet we've been walking in circles for gods now how long. Are you trying to make a fool of us or something?" Yuugi asked angrily as she walked towards the sages from the crowd.

"No, no, we're exactly where we're supposed to be," Renko uttered while walking slowly forward and looking slightly upwards like looking for something.

"Magnificent, isn't it?" Renko said as she kept walking.

"It is," Yukari responded while walking slightly behind her friend.

"What is?" Yuugi asked with confused and slightly annoyed look on her face as she watched how the two walked past her.

"My magnum opus. The illusion that defies all logic, breaks the laws of physics and most importantly, blurss the border between fantasy and reality in one's mind," Renko uttered as she stopped once she had walked past the Oni.

"What is she on about? Where's the barrier?" Suika asked as she stepped forward.

"It's right here," Renko responded and snapped her fingers. In a flash the world around them changed. Before them the world suddenly faded into this massive psychedelic wall that wibrated in every color imaginable. It looked like an aquarium filled with some strange liquid as the colors shifted and stirred. It actually started to hurt one's eyes and head to look at it for a long periods of time but even when they looked away they could see the very same wall on the opposite side of Gensokyo stretching up into the sky and far beyond. Renko then snapped her fingers again and the wall faded from their field of vision as quickly as it had appeared. Everyone looked at each other for a second and then at Renko. She smirked a little.

"The Hakurei barrier, it's not a physical barrier. It is a barrier set within a consciouss minds of the world. It's in everyone's mind. Everyone's who are intelligent enough to know the difference between reality and fantasy. No matter how hard you try the barrier that is set within your thoughts wont allow you to step between the two consciously. Reality and fantasy, We sages have separated them. Even if you try to walk to the outside world or from the outside world to Gensokyo the barrier will throw you back. You may try and concentrate in your mind not to let your thoughts slip but they always will, and when they do the barrier will send you back to your starting point and you'll never realize a thing," Renko explained while waving her hands in the air as if she was trying to touch the wall.

"And what does this have to do with anything. The barrier is impressive, we know. Just cast us to the outside world so we can be on our way," Yuugi simply grunted impatiently.

"I'm telling you this so you can understand to what lengths we have to go to get you out. While I could just remove the barrier from your consciousness and cast you out in an instant, the barrier can't handle that. It would create a chain reaction in the mind of everyone within Gensokyo and cast everyone out. In a sense we would be ripped from our own world. But on the other hand, Yukari opening a direct gap would rip our world from us, leaving us into void. The world outside has gone unstable and the tiniest crack could lead the two into merging. That's why we need delicacy in our procedures," Renko explained with much more serious look on her face as the Oni before her fell silent due to the risks they realized that they were now facing. Everyone were just silently looking at each other when Yukari stepped forward.

"There always was a reason why I was so strict about keeping the barrier untouched. I believe you undertsand now why," Yukari uttered while looking at Yuugi with strict look on her face. She then turned her gaze towards Renko.

"But we're here now and we have an incident to resolve," Yukari said and cracked a slight grin while looking at Renko who grinned back. Yuugi then stepped besides Yukari and simply uttered, "Alright, let's get this show on the road." Yukari gave Renko a slight nod who responded by nodding back. Renko then turned around facing this barrier they couldn't see. Everyone could then suddenly feel a sudden shift in the energies around them. The wind started to howl around them catching everyone off guard. Yukari then started making movements with her hands as Renko did too. Renko then slowly turned around almost like dancing or doing this graceful Tai chi meditation. Yukari then closed her eyes and everyone could see her tightening her muscles. She then stretched her arms forward almost like grabbing two sliding doors. Then in one sudden act, Yukari opened her eyes and started pulling her arms away from each other like opening a door. Everyone could then see a huge vertical crack appearing before them. The crack reached so high up that they couldn't see where it ended. The crack was starting to leak purple like glow through it as Yukari pulled her arms further and further away from each other. Then in a one swift motion she pulled her arms all the way to her sides and the crack before them split into a huge rift accompanied with a thundering boom. The ground under their feet was starting to shake and the wind got stronger. The rift before them was seemingly sucking and spewing out energy, changing it's glow from purple to blue to magenta to turquoise. But the most notable feature about the rift was that it was seemingly getting larger and larger and beyond it was only darkness. Nothing could be seen on the other side and the Oni were starting to get freaked out. That was until Renko stepped in. She stepped before the rift, sat down, closed her eyes and smashed her fists together. This let out a shockwave of ligth blue energy together with a hollow bang that seemed to calm down the wind and the quaking of the ground like they had never even been there. The expanding of the rift also stopped and the violent torrents of energy seemed to calm down into this one constant and almost gentle white-glowing stream that went in and out from the rift. It was then when the other side of the rift came to view. Flandre couldn't tell what was on the other side even though she had crept closer to this event before her but she was certain she could see something beyond the rift.

Once the rift had been seemingly calmed down and the Oni were no longer freaking out Yukari turned her head towards Yuugi.

"Take your army through the rift now," Yukari said in a commanding tone. Yuugi simply nodded and turned towards the open rift.

"LET'S MOVE," Yuugi yelled and pointed towards the rift before starting to head towards it herself. She was quickly joined by Suika and Konggara who in turn were followed by the rest of the Oni. Even though they had just been told that what they were now doing could result in the end of Gensokyo and they had just witnessed the violent conjuration of that rift in the barrier they still trusted Yuugi, Suika and Konggara. And if they trusted the sages and told the rest of the Oni to trust them, they damn right would. They didn't know what would await them on the other side but all of them just marched forward trusting that what ever they'd face beyond that rift would be no match for them and that they'd be back in no time.

It was around this time when Flandre realized that she would have to make her move soon. The Oni were pouring into the rift and Flandre had to start getting closer or she would miss out on this opportunity. Cloaked by her invisibility she should be able to sneak in together with the Oni, especially now when Yukari was concentrated on keeping the rift up. Flandre had started a swift but silent jog towards the rift to make it in time until she was suddenly over come by this sudden and really powerful headache. She had to slow down, stop and hold her head. The pain was that great. But this was not the only thing her approach caused. The rift and the energies had once again started to get little wild. Renko and Yukari were able to keep the rift in check but it was clearly starting to get difficult for them. Trying to not care about the pain in her head, Flandre tried to take few steps towards the rift but with each step the pain grew and the rift got more unstable.

"This is bad. There's someone here too close to the rift. Someone who is untapped by Renko's power and thus are driving the rift off balance," Yukari managed to yell over her stuggles of trying to keep the rift in check.

"The Oni must get out now or there wont be a second chance. Okina, let's secure the area," Kasen said before the two headed to the both sides of Renko and Yukari. At that moment Flandre had to back off since Kasen had gotten too close and would soon sense her presence. Flandre turned around and ran back to her original hiding spot while holding her head. As soon as she got further away from the rift the headache left and the rift calmed down again. Flandre could only watch in frustration as the rest of the Oni that hadn't still made it through the rift picked up their pace after the rift had calmed down. Kasen and Okina were still circling around Yukari and Renko so there was no chance for Flandre to try and approach. She could only watch as the last of the Oni went through the rift and as soon as they did Flandre could see Yukari pulling her hands back together as if she was closing a door. The rift before her eyes began to narrow though it seemed that it required alot, even for Yukari. As the rift got smaller and smaller Okina and Kasen kept on guarding it. They didn't want to risk anything as long as the rift was open. Flandre was getting stressed. It was only matter of seconds before the rift would close. She stood up. She had to make a final run for it. Just as she was going to make a dash, _CRACK_, the rift closed and the crack faded from her field of view. The portal to outside world was gone. It was then when Kasen and Okina stopped guarding the area and headed back to Renko and Yukari. Yukari was standing on her place panting heavily while Renko fell to her back in front of her. Kasen rushed to check on Renko while Okina went to help Yukari. Okina was going to help Yukari to stand but she signed that she would be alright.

"I'm fine. Just a bit exhausted that's all," Yukari said while still panting. She then started making her way towards Renko and Kasen who was kneeling beside her.

"Is she okay?" Yukari asked with worried look on her face.

"She is. She just collapsed from exhaustion. She's in no danger. Now let's get you back into the village so you two can rest," Kasen replied and picked Renko up.

"What was that just now? When the rift almost fell out of balance?" Okina asked before they started heading back.

"Someone got too close to the rift. Renko made sure with her power to weaken the barrier from the minds for us and the Oni so that the Oni could cross the rift and that it wouldn't get out of hand. But someone got too close. Someone who Renko hadn't touched with her power. They got too close for comfort. Little closer and the rift would have gotten out of hand," Yukari said with concerned look on her face.

"But we didn't find anyone," Kasen said while holding Renko in her arms.

"More the reason to be content that it is finally done and Gensokyo is still standing. Now let's head back and contact the Oni on the other side as soon as we reach the village," Yukari said and turned her gaze back towards the Gensokyo behind them.

"So, the Oni made it safely to the outside world?" Okina asked before Yukari started heading back towards the village.

"They made it to the other side of the barrier. But what waited them on the other side, if anything, well that remains to be seen," Yukari responded before taking flight soon followed by Okina and Kasen who was carrying Renko. The only one who stayed behind was Flandre frustrated and desparate at the same time. She had just missed on her best opportunity to get to the outside world. She was on her own now.

"What now...?" Flandre simply uttered as she sat on her place after Yukari, Okina, Kasen and Renko had disappeared into the distance.

"By now there's someone in the village who's noticed that I'm missing. And as soon as they return and realize that they'll go looking for me," Flandre thought with troubled look on her face.

"They still think I have the watch," She mumbled as she stood up from the ground and looked around herself. Behind herself she saw Gensokyo and in front of herself she saw hills stretching into distance with patches of forest scattered around. Staying there wouldn't be an option. Once they would realize she was missing it would be clear to them who had tried to approach the portal. The only option for Flandre was to try getting out herself.

"The barrier wont cast you back as long as you don't let your mind to wonder," Flandre muttered to herself remembering what Yukari had said earlier before opening the rift. She then started walking towards the hills in the distance with determination her eyes.

"I can do this. I must," Flandre thought to herself as she started making her way to what she was hoping was the outside world. As she walked she made sure to keep her eyes and mind concentrated on every little detail she could see around her. A pebble on the ground, a tall patch of grass in hundred meters away from her. She made sure to always have a goal in mind that she would have to reach and after reaching it she would pick a new goal in her general vicinity. For a while it seemed that she was making progress. She had already crossed two hills and was nearing the first patch of woods in the distance. Flandre was actually strating to feel more and more confident as the woods would offer much easier time in terms of objects to focus her eyes and mind onto. She then stopped for a moment. Just to make sure that her eyes and mind weren't playing tricks on her. She turned around to see how far she had gotten. And to her pleasant surprise she could she the hill from where she had started her walk far in the distance behind her.

"If I keep this on I'll be out in no-," Flandre muttered to herself as she turned around again to continue her walk but to her dismay she found herself from a foot of a hill all of a sudden. She then quickly span around again and low and behold, Tanuki forest was right there behind her. Flandre was stunned. She had not realized any kind of shift or anything that would have moved her back to the first hill.

"I got cocky. Wont happen again," Flandre muttered and sighed deeply to keep herself calm as she started her walk again. She was kinda baffled to see the tricks of the barrier so suddenly but she wasn't going to let it keep her down. She now knew to not take breaks to look back. She would have to stay focused on her target as long as it would take her to get to the outside world. The invisibility potion had started to wear off too which further irritated her because it meant that it had taken her quite long to be just sent back. But a sudden thought interrupted Flandre's mind. How could she even tell if she was in the outside world or when she would have crossed the barrier? She stopped. Flandre had to take few moments to think about it.

"The Oni went to the outside world. As soon as I find proof that they've been around I'll be certain that I've made it too," Flandre uttered out loud and lifted her gaze from the ground. The hill was before her eyes and the forest behind her back again. She looked around herself. This time she had let her mind wonder freely.

"Okay from here on I'll head for the outside world and ask questions later," She uttered to herself, took a deep breath and started again. She did everything she had done the first time. She made sure to find some kind of point of interest with her eyes and keep her mind focused on that until she would reach it and after that she would find another. This time however the landscape didn't seem the same as the last time. Pebbles were missing and where there had been a tall patch of grass was now just regular grass. Flandre however didn't let this bother her and she would just find new things to focus onto.

Eventually Flandre reached the point where she had made the mistake of looking back the first time. This time she knew better and would just continue instead. She was starting to feel confident again but didn't let her pride get the best of her this time. She was going to reach that forest and she wasn't going to let her mind wonder. After painstakingly boring and long walk she finally reached the tree line and entered the forest. She didn't know what it was called or did it even have a name in the first place. All she knew was that with all the trees around she would have much easier time to have points of interest to focus onto. She made her way from tree to tree always making sure she would have a next tree to head towards to. From the distance the forest had seemed more like a small patch of forest and sure enough she was starting to see the other end of the forest soon. Flandre started to pick up her pace to reach it quicker to see what was on the other side. She started to powerwalk from tree to tree, from stone to stone until she finally reached the last tree and the open fields opened up before her eyes again. But it wasn't what she was expecting. The hill was again before her eyes and the forest behind her back. She turned around and to her despair she realized that she had just exited the Tanuki forest.

"Wh- what!? No... What? No, no. What, no," was the only thing Flandre could utter as she turned around in place to look at her surroundings. Everything was the same as when she had left. The trees, location, everything. She wasn't going to believe her eyes nor mind. This had to be some kind of trick of mind. She had kept her mind focused the whole time. At no point had the barrier chance to throw her back.

"It's all just an illusion. Yes... just an illusion," Flandre muttered frantically as she took flight just above the trees expecting to see all the progress she had done behind this forest that just looked like Tanuki Forest but she was out of luck. Behind the forest opened up Gensokyo like it had before. She was truly back at the place from where she had started.

"No, no, NO," Flandre yelled as she landed back onto the ground.

"AAAARGH," she screamed and grabbed a nearby tree in frustration. She would have probably ripped it from the ground had she not been so frustrated that she just ended up shaking it and then hitting it few times. Her claws digging deep into the bark sending splinters flying to the air. After a moment she finally calmed down and sat slowly down leaning against the tree she had just almost destroyed.

"I don't get it, I just don't. My head hurts," Flandre sobbed quietly to herself while looking all defeated.

"A-hah, it's mind boggling, is it not," Flandre suddenly heard a voice saying from somewhere above her. She was still in some state of shock so she didn't recognize the source of the voice immediately but it still sounded really familiar. Flandre stood from the base of the tree to look around herself and up to the tree branches when she suddenly saw a familira figure grinning at her from one of the thicker branches of the trees.

"Hiiiiiiii," Koishi uttered with ever widening grin on her face.

"Koishi," Flandre exclaimed with much more brightened up tone and look on her face. She had not expeted to see Koishi here.

"The barrier. It's so strong yet so fragile. Such a safe haven yet such a prison at the same time... don't you think," Koishi uttered while retaining that grin on her face and jumped down from the branch above Flandre.

"Yeah, you really couldn't have arrived at any better moment. You gotta help me. I have to get to the outside world," Flandre explained with enthused look on her face.

"Oh? Such a coincidence. I was just about to make my way there too," Koishi said and glanced at Flandre after she had landed next to her and the grin on her face grew ever so slightly. Flandre thought that her face was gonna rip if she grinned even more.

"Really!? That's so relieving to he-," Flandre continued but was cut short by Koishi who had not yet said everything she was going to.

"But first, I have a few errands to run before I can do that," Koishi said and took a few steps away from Flandre with her back turned towards her. Flandre just looked at her with confused look on her face and tilted her head.

"Not all got this far you know. You got me impressed. It's lucky I don't have any feelings because, oh, otherwise I would have started to twitch with excitement every time I spoke to you and lead you further. Ahah, you could say that I was almost ecstatic," Koishi said and turned to look at Flandre.

"What are you going on about?" Flandre asked all tone confused accompanied with this specific laughter one makes when they don't understand something.

"Ah, watching you get this far. It's almost shame that it has to end here. But everything good must come to an end," Koishi said and shrugged while shaking her head with amused smile on her face.

"Wh- what are you talking about. Come on, cut it off, you're making me nervous," Flandre said with her voice trembling just slightly. Koishi just giggled and pulled something out from her pocket. Something attached to a thing metal chain. Koishi then opened her palm and let the object she was holding dangle from the chain she was holding between her fingers. It was a slightly cracked stop watch. It was _THE _watch.

"I just got back from retrieving this from you and giving you back the repaired version after you so foolishly were going to crush this poor little thing. What it had ever done to you? Now I have to get this repaired so I can return it to you again," Koishi said and the grin on her face suddenly shifted from this innocent, playfull, childlike grin to dark, twisted and demonic. The change was so sudden that Flandre almost fell to her back.

"I'm sad to tell you this but it's time for me to stop your hero games. Alas the cycle must continue, wouldn't you agree?" Koishi said and giggled devilishly.

"Wait... No, you cannot be... Are you the culprit behind all of this?" Flandre managed to utter while backing away from Koishi who almost looked surprised at Flandre's comment.

"What? Oh, bloody hell no. I'm just, heh, a watchful eye of sorts. Yeah, something along the lines of that. I made sure you would follow our little plan to a letter," Koishi said, shook her head and shrugged her shoulders again.

"Our? First Rumia, now you? Who else is with you!? Tell me! Who's behind all of this!?" Flandre shouted trying change her demeanor to more threatening but inside she was still very shocked. And Koishi saw right through her act.

"Oh, that's the beauty in all of this. I cannot possibly tell you," Koishi said and giggled innocently but Flandre wasn't having any of it, "Why can't you tell me!? Why are you all such a cowards as to still keep hiding!?"

"But we've told you so many times before. If I told you, your heart would break," Koishi uttered and tilted her head while doing this almost puppy-like face. It was as if she was trying to show pity towards Flandre with her expression. But showed something far from pity to Flandre. To her it was to mock her.

"B-but why would you do this? The world is ending because of this. Don't you care even a slightest bit that people are suffering?" Flandre asked with unbelieving tone and look on her face.

"Hahaha, no," Koishi answered straight away and laughed innocently, like her answer should have been obvious from the start.

"I don't care for suffering because I have a fair bit of that for myself. Do you know what you and that itty bitty, tiny watch of yours have caused to me?" Koishi suddenly asked her expression changing from that grin to a cold emotionless state.

"Have I ever told you about dreams? What they are?" Koishi uttered without even a slightest bit emotion in her tone as she walked a bit closer to Flandre. Flandre just stared at Koishi not knowing what she should do.

"When you sleep your subconsciousness is at it's strongest allowing you to see dreams. But what you thought were just images created by imaginations are in fact windows, subconscious connections to your other selves, allowing you to see brief glimpses at what's happening beyons eternity," Koishi said, creeping ever closer to Flandre.

"But look at me, hahah, look at me. I am subconscious being. I have no consciousness meaning my subconsciousness was never supressed by conscious feelings and such, allowing me to take deeper dives into the minds of my other selves. But it was not so much of a blessing as it was a curse... when you broke the walls of reality," Koishi said continuing after a brief pause, "What once was something fun I could do when ever I slipped into the slumberland suddenly became burden that was always there. You see, you don't have your own subconsciousness. It is one hive mind shared by you and all your other selves." Koishi then stopped and looked at Flandre with wide open eyes. She could suddenly see fury in Koishi's eyes.

"Do you have any idea what that did to me? DO YOU!?" Koishi suddenly exploded. So suddenly in fact that Flandre yelped and stepped backwards.

"With the walls seperating the realities down little Koishi became confused. Koishi had no longer peace within her own head. There was always other Koishis intruding her thoughts not allowing her to rest, but that was the easy part. The worst was when it all became organized and the Koishis started to communicate. Every. Single. One. Infinite amount of Koishis. Every possible scenario had already been lived. All the knowledge in the universe was suddenly in my mind. All of it. Do you know what little Koishi felt then? Do you?" Koishi said and the fury in her eyes started to turn into sadness.

"With your power, we could have ended the incident on its tracks. Everything would have gone back to normal," Flandre tried to reason but to no avail.

"But not for little Koishi. What goes into her head, stays in her head. The subconsciousness doesn't forget. The world lost its colors in Koishi's little mind. Everything went grey and bland. Nothing interesting to discover, not in the underground, nor above ground. For she already knew everything even if she didn't want to. What reason is there to live if you already know everything. Every secret, every truth. What could little Koishi have in this world?" Koishi asked and Flandre could see tears forming to her eyes. She was just about to respond but Koishi was first. But before she continued her face twisted back to that devilish grin. No tears rolled down her cheeks for it was just like she had told. Koishi had no feelings, even though she could act like she had.

"Koishi was right, this world could offer her nothing anymore. And that's why it must burn, grind to a halt, so that a new one can be created from it's ashes. Rise like a phoenix from a volcano, ripe with mysteries, secrets to uncover for sweet, little Koishi," Koishi said and made the cutest smile she could muster but at that point it felt like the Devil itself trying to imitate a puppy-face.

"When Koishi was offered a chance in this. To have the world crushed and grinded, she took it. And for her services, Koishi would live to see the next world rise. Koishi wouldn't have to suffer from greyness of the world anymore. She wouldn't have to bear the infinite knowledge anymore, for all would be fixed and Koishi could be happy again. And so, until I am awarded, my burden you cast upon me, I shall use as a weapon to destroy you, as I have done before, cycle after cycle, time after time again. You've come this far many times before and every time I've killed you here, for that is my purpose, to keep the cycle ever moving," Koishi said and started to giggle devilishly like a child that had just commited a prank fo their life. At that moment Flandre started to comprehend the extend of Koishi's betrayal. She started to back away nervously.

"But worry not. In the end your performance was far better than most of what I've seen," Koishi said like her words could bring any comfort to Flandre anymore. Koishi then just shook her head one more time until tucking the watch back into her pocket and pulling out something else. It took Flandre few moments to realize what it was. Koishi was flipping a knife in her hands. And not just a regular knife, it was clearly a silver knife. Though it was far bigger and much more crude than those that Sakuya used to wield.

"Now, you might feel a slight... STING," Koishi suddenly yelled and lunged at Flandre. Flandre yelped and summoned her Lävatein out of pure instint. Koishi's attack was stopped with one swift swipe of Flandre's blade that cut Koishi in half before Flandre's eyes. She stood still for a moment and just looked how the knife flew from Koishi's hands who had utterly shocked look on her face as her body split in half and then suddenly vanished. Flandre was taken back by this. She looked around for a moment in confusion.

"Oh, could it have been that that attack was meant to hit me?" Flandre suddenly heard being said from her right. She immediately turned to look and saw Koishi leaning against a tree with smug grin on her face.

"Or perhaps me?" She heard again but this time it came from above her. She looked up and saw another Koishi hanging from a tree branch with her arms.

"Ahh, or could it have been meant for me?" Flandre heard for the third time and when she turned to look she saw third Koishi sitting on top of a small rock. Flandre kept looking around herself in frantic confusion.

"She cloned herself?" Flandre muttered to herself as she scanned the area around her finding more and more clones of Koishi.

"Spot. On," Flandre then finally heard from beneath her and saw Koishi's head staring at her from between her legs. Flandre yelped and tried to slash the one between her legs but as quickly as she had appeared there she was gone and Flandre's attack ended up missing.

"Now now, let's have some fun first, shall we," Flandre then heard being said but this time the sound came all around her being said by every clone of Koishi at the same time. Flandre had bearly enough time to look around herself when all of them charged at her at the same time. There was nowhere to run for Flandre so she took flight to avoid the clones with knives. But as soon as she had reached a hight where she couldn't be reached by the clones one of them shot out a thorny rose vine that tangled itself around Flandre's feet. Flandre was caught off guard by this which was followed by the other clones shooting their own vines at Flandre too all grabbing onto her feet. They all then started pulling Flandre back down. As Flandre was pulled back she was seriously starting to freak out by the fact that every clone had the exact identical grin on their faces. Just before she was on the reach of the clones again Flandre released a gush of fire below her forcing the clones to back off while destroying couple. This freed Flandre from the vines and allowed her to attack. She immediately charged at few of the clones. But before she could destroy more than two the rest charged to attack her. Flandre was startled by this and was forced back away. But it was at that moment when she realized that the clones she had been fighting so far hadn't relied on magic almost at all and seemed to be only capable of physical contact. The vines too had only been used for dragging her down. On this realization Flandre started taking distance to the clones that were once again charging at her. But while doing so Flandre charged her sword and after a quick moment she started slashing at the clones sending waves of fire at them. The clones were able to dodge most of the waves Flandre threw at them but some hit wiping out more of the clones.

Flandre couldn't help but to smirk upon finding out that her new tactic seemed to work but her joy was short lived when she saw new clones emerging from nothingness replacing those she had destroyed.

"Two can play this game of yours," Flandre then exclaimed as she summoned three clones of her own to even the odds a little. She knew that her clones were in an advantage since they could attack from a distance but at the same time they were outnumbered by far.

"Okay, fighting the clones is useless. I have to find the real Koishi," Flandre thought to herself as the clones and she herself split up and started attacking the clones. Flandre made her best to observe the clones as her clones fired lasers and beams at the Koishis. All of the clones seemed to have the same pattern of dodging and none of them used magic. Flandre then joines the bombardment herself shooting her own projectiles from another angle compared to her clones giving Koishi's clones another direction they had to worry about. It was around that time when one of Flandre's clones got caught by Koishi's clones and in a matter of seconds they all ganged up on that clone. It was ripped to shreds in moments. This made Flandre stop for a moment. To see her own image being ripped apart like that shocked her. Limb by limb it was cut to pieces. But it was also at that moment when Flandre noticed that one of the clones didn't join in to rip her clone. And as that clone suddenly glanced at her with vicious grin on its face Flandre realized that it wasn't a clone at all. With one swift movement Koishi turned to face Flandre and threw her knife at her. Flandre was quick enough to dodge but upon following the knife with her eyes as it passed before her face she realized that Koishi was now behind her. Koisi grabbed the knife from the air and threw two slashes at Flandre. Luckily Flandre was quick enough to step back and be just out of Koishi's reach but after the second slash that missed Koishi lifted her empty hand and released a pulse of red energy. The shockwave sent Flandre backwards by a good amount but she was quick to get back onto her feet. She then glanced behind herself in fear that the clones would charge at her now when she was closer but to her surprise all of the clones were now gone. She still had two of her own clones left which she thought to be an advantage. The two clones immediately took flight towards Koishi but she just grinned. And suddenly when her grin turned into a toothy smile Flandre could hear an ear pearcing sound in her head. It was like a tinnitus but hundreds of times more loud. Flandre could only cover her ears as the sound ravaged her head. She could help but to fell to one of her knees, the sound was that painful. A quick glance around her confirmed that her clones were suffering from it too as she saw them writhing on the ground and slowly fading away.

"This noise. Koishi is using it to get rid of my clones," Flandre thought to herself when the clones disappeared. Only after they had completely vanished did the sound stop and Flandre could finally catch her breath although the pain in her head didn't leave immediately.

"It's a pity really. I've done this so many times that the clone play doesn't entertain me anymore. Ahh, guess I have to just get this job over and be done with it," Koishi said with almost disappointed look on her face and shrugged her shoulders as she approached Flandre. Flandre watched as Koishi approached her and without caring about the pain she was still feeling she readied herself. But once she had taken a stance Koishi simply let out an echoing cackle and the world around Flandre suddenly fell into darkness. She could literally see nothing around her anymore. The trees, the hills, the sky, everything vanished. The only thing she could see was her own body when she looked at herself. Flandre looked around herself, her mind on full alert. A white thick fog was starting to rise from now invisible ground and soon enough she was enveloped in the fog completely. Flandre started hearing shuffles, movements and giggles from within the fog. She kept turning around slowly trying to pinpoint where the noises were coming from when suddenly she heard clear _THUMP THUMP THUMP _coming from behind her. It was the clear sound of someone running straight at her. She span around but she was just in time to only see a foot just before it hit her face and sent her falling to the ground. As Flandre hit the ground she was quick to gather herself and get up but once she did the world around her was no longer enveloped in fog or darkness. What Flandre saw shocked her. She was standing in the middle of the Forest of Magic but what caught her off guard that it was engulfed in flames. Flandre had to stop and look around herself for a moment to realize what was happening around her. She took a few steps back and touched a tree next to her. She could feel the coarse bark with her fingers.

"This is not possible. I'm not here, this is all a trick," Flandre could utter as she looked around herself in shock. However she was only barely able to complete her sentence when she felt how something or someone grabbed her from behind. She felt how she was lifted into the air, flipped and the smashed back into the ground with huge force. The impact was strong enough that it knocked the breath out of her and it definitely felt real. Flandre was gasping for air as she rolled around to see who it had been. To her horror she saw Marisa standing on top of her. Her red eyes burning with madness and hatred. Flandre's heart skipped a beat upon seeing this and she tried to back away but Marisa just let out an ear piercing screech while spreading her wings suddenly in an intimidating manner. This stopped Flandre and she was able to only watch as Marisa ripped a flaming branch from a nearby tree, looked at Flandre and then proceeded to start hitting Flandre with the branch. Already after the first hit Flandre's body was caught up in flames and she could feel her body and flesh burning to cinders. Marisa kept on hitting her and she could feel her body sinking into the ground. Deeper and deeper until it almost felt like she was falling. And then suddenly she was. She was falling through the air towards a flaming building beneath her. She braced herself as she smashed through the roof and fell into the fiery inferno that was the inside of the burning house. Flandre smacked the floor back first and she could once again feel the air escaping her lungs and the fire latching onto her like a predator to its prey. However this time the fire wasn't as agressive as she had seen in Forest of Magic. It still burned and scarred her but it didn't give her the immobilizing pain it had given her moment before. She jumped up and started hitting her clothes to extinguish the fire on them. But she only got so far when she noticed that she wasn't alone in the building. She could see the front door behind the sea of flames open and a familiar figure standing on the treshold. It was Remilia. Her spear readied and wings spread. Flandre took a step back but before she could utter even a single word she saw Remilia throwing her spear straight at her. This came so suddenly and unexpectedly that she had no time to dodge and the spear impailed her and flew straight through her sending Flandre flying backwards towards the wall behind her and as she hit the wall she broke it and flew straight through it. The wall she had flown through collapsed with the creation of the new hole together with the whole house. Flandre hit the wet and dirty cobblestone street behind the wall and rolled on it for few meters until she finally stopped. She could just lay there with a gaping hole in her chest and it was then when she could get a better look at her surroundings. It was an old looking town. Buildings that had been build side by side with only narrow gap, barely wide enough for a person between them, were engulfed in fire. People screaming and running all around. The smell of death and carnage was in the air as the glowing of the fire was darkening the any light the clear night sky had to offer. Flandre started to pry herself up from the ground but that was made hard with the pain in her chest. When she finally got up she could see more and more people running around in panic and horror. People trying to get away from their houses. Some were completely enveloped in flames as they run out. Some jumped out from the windows, smacking into the ground and dying on impact. Even children were running around. Most of which had visible injuries and some were missing even limbs as they tried to get away from the inferno around them. And it was then when Flandre saw her again. Remilia was standing at the end of the street they were on cluthing her spear once again. Flandre could only gasp as she saw how Remilia charged at her leaping from the ground and taking flight, screaming as she did so. She aimed her spear at Flandre as she approached the fangs in her mouth clearly visible as it stretched wider and wider. Finally Remilia's mouth was wide enough to swallow Flandre whole and suck her into that gaping hole of darkness. And then it became silent again.

Flandre could feel the hard stone ground beneath her hands and feet as she started to get up. She looked around herself. It was dark again. There was no wind and the air smelt somehow musty. Flandre tried to feel where she was but she could only feel the hard floor beneath her. When she had finally gotten up she made a small flame to the tip of her finger to light up the place she was in. When she looked around she was almost going to vomit. It was the basement of Scarlet Devil Mansion. The cave-like walls, the dilapidated bed in the middle. It was the room. Flandre was starting to hyperventilate. If there was one place she didn't want to be in it was this exact room. She looked around herself looking for the door that could get her out but there was none. Where there used to be a door there was now a solid wall of stone.

"No, no, no, no, NO! Let me out! LET ME OUT," Flandre started to scream and run to the spot where the door used to be and started hitting the wall frantically. But as she was doing so she suddenly felt a jolt of white hot pain flushing over her head which made stop and hold it for a second until the pain disappeared but when it did and she was able to open her eyes again and what she saw shocked her even more. The walls were now covered with figures painted with red substance. At first it looked like paint but it was obvious that it wasn't. But what was worse was that these unnerving childish scribbles of monsters with horns, jagged teeth and distorted body parts were all moving. They weren't static images, it was like they were dancing on the walls around Flandre. She then retreater back to the middle of the room to stay away from the walls but that did not help. The walls followed her. Inching closer as she tried to back away from them. The figures just kept on dancing. They were making these distant howls and cackles. They were mocking her. Soon enough the walls had closed in on her so much that she could reach the both opposite sides of the walls by simply stretching her hands to her sides but it was there where the walls stopped. Flandre was breathing frantically. But it was at that moment when the drumming started. Rythmic, distant drumming. She looked around herself in panic but the only thing she could see were the figures smiling at her in anticipation. She then felt something under her feet. She looked down and saw that the floor was no longer solid. She could see it twitching like swarm of bugs. And then suddenly a barrage of hands shot out from the twitching ground and garbbed her ankles. They started to pull making her feet sank into the ground. She tried to reach for the walls to keep her from sinking further but the walls had gotten just a slight bit further away from her so she couldn't reach them. Slowly the hands pulled her deeper and deeper into the ground until only her head was above. Flandre was breathing heavily in her panic but it was there where the pulling stopped. It took few seconds for her to realize this but upon doing so she felt the hands grabbing her again and with one powerful jolt pulling her completely underground.

She was now in water. She could see no surface or the bottom of it. It felt like she was in zero gravity. Only thing she saw was the blue ever still water around her. She couldn't breathe. Her lungs were on fire but she knew that it couldn't kill her. Flandre tried to make sense out of the situation by swimming upwards but that was easier said than done. She didn't know which way was up, down, left nor right. She was trying to flounder herself to at least some direction when a she felt a sudden burst of pain as a sudden torrent of moving water hit her leg and made it dissolve. If she could have she would have cried out in pain. She could only watch as the water around her turned partially red from her blood. The torrent then hit her again. This time leaving a clear hole into her stomach. Flandre was writhing in agony. She wanted to get away but she couldn't. She was utterly paralyzed. She could only watch as the nearly invisible torrent turned around and came for her again. This time it hit her elbow severing her arm clean from her torso. She could only twitch in pain and watch as her arm floated away. She then looked above her relative to her position where the torrent had headed and to her horror she didn't see the torrent but a constant wall of water rushing towards her. She couldn't do anything but watch as it got closer and closer and finally it smashed into her. She was thrown around like kite in a storm. She could feel and see her remaining limbs and body dissolving away, painting the waters around her into a deep color of red. And yet, even with all the pain and her body completely dissolved she was unable to die. She just wished for the pain to end. She didn't want anything more.

Suddenly she felt herself falling out from the water with her body still intact. She fell for what felt like minutes until she finally hit a hard surface of stone. Even though she could feel her limbs where they should be and no water anywhere she no longer had resolve to stand up. She just wanted all of this to end. She then slowly opened her eyes and found herself standing now. She looked around herself. She saw that she was standing on a big rock. But that was everything she could see. The rock seemed to be floating in empty space. There were no stars, nothing. Just the rock and she standing on it. Flandre's breathing was once again starting to get more rapid. She knew that something was going to happen but she didn't know what. Finally it did. She suddenly felt the strongest sensation fo being watched she had ever felt. The hair on her neck stood up as she turned around slowly to see what it was. The gasp she made was clearly audible when she did see it. It was colossal, no titanic, no, it was utterly mind bogglingly huge, closed blue eye. The one that hung over Koishi's chest. Flandre looked at it and her heart started to race. The rock wasn't moving any closer or further from the eye. It just stood there. Then a thundering crack could be heard as the lid of they opened just slightly. To put it simply it sounded like the Earth had just split in half. From underneath that slightly opened eyelid Flandre could see unimaginably bright beam of light surging downwards. Then without warning, with a one sudden move accompanied by even more deafing roar the eye opened completely letting out blinding rays of light all around and at Flandre. She covered her eyes but it was to no avail. The light burned her hands away, turning them to ash. Then it was her face, her torso, her feet. Everything she was turned into ash and was blown away but yet she didn't die. Her body was still there. She could physically feel it. Physically feel it being turned to ash again. The light singed through her flesh. Dried her guts and blew them away. It cracker her bones and yet she was still standing there. Unable to move, unable to fall down in pain. Unable to die. She wanted to get away. She didn't want to go through this anymore. She wanted to be put out from her misery. Her pody turning to ashes left only a skeleton behind. A skeleton she was. She looked at her hands that were now reduced to bare bones that slowly turned black and chipped away as the light engulfed her. She had always thought that hell was dark and lonely place. But that would have been too good to be true to her.

Finally she felt the light subsiding and she could finally collapse onto the ground. Her body was still intact but the pain she felt was literally unbearable. She was shivering. Her limbs were twitching. Tears were rolling down her cheeks. Nothing made sense in her mind. She couldn't move a muscle even though all she truly felt was the grass under her and a slight morning breeze that had started to blow over the plains around Tanuki Forest.

Koishi was looking Flandre curled up into this miserable ball while flipping the knife in her hands. The first rays of light had started to emerge from behind the horizon as she looked at Flandre. The grin was washed away from Koishi's face. She had done this so many times that it wasn't fun anymore. It wasn't fun anymore to mess up Flandre's head. It wasn't fun to see how someone could feel physical pain from purely mental attacks. She had done this too many times. She hoped that she wouldn't have to do this too many times again.

The grin the returned to Koishi's face and a mild chuckle escaped her mouth. She wouldn't have to do this too many times again. She just watched how the mountain peaks in the distance were starting to become enveloped in the rays of the morning sun and the shadow in which Flandre was laying was starting shrink. Koishi then finally let out a blissful sigh, took a small pebble from the ground and threw it at Flandre.

"Heyyyy, nappy-nap time's over. It's morning. Don't want you missing out on the first rays of the sun," Koishi said playfully as she looked how Flandre suddenly snapped from her trance when the pebble hit her head gently. Flandre opened her eyes and when she did she stopped shivering. She looked around herself without standing up. First she touched the ground under her. It felt and looked like grass. Flandre looked up. The sky was starting to take the color of grayish blue. After this Flandre took a look at herself. She felt her arms, her feet, her chest. Her every limb was where it was supposed to be. There were no holes. Nothing had disintegrated. And on top of everything she felt no pain anymore. But even now she was sure that it was all just illusion. A trick to catch her off guard before the next torturous event would occur. Flandre refused to stand up or even lift her head. She just layed there and whimpered silently.

"*Sigh Awww, here we are again. You'd think that with all your bravado you could have the resolve to still fight but look at you. Refusing to even stand up. Not caring that all you've just felt was inside your head and that soon the pain you'll feel will be very real. You'll burn, turn to ash, like so many times before," Koishi said with slight joyless grin on her face. She then dag out the watch from her pocket again and looked at it.

"She must be getting really annoyed that she has to fix this over and over again. Ahhh, but no can do," Koishi said and shrugged her shoulder while putting the watch back into her pocket. A moment after doing this Koishi finally felt the first rays of light touching the back of her neck as the sun rose above the horizon. Flandre was laying behind a hillock on the side of the hill so it would take a while until sun would be high enough for her to run out of shadow. A grin grew onto Koishi's face as she looked at Flandre.

"Rise and shine my deary. It's a new day and I wouldn't want you to miss the first rays of the sun," Koishi said with a slight giggle as she stood up. She then turned away from Flandre and towards the light to take in the already very mundane victory. Koishi bathed in the light with her eyes closed and took a deep inhale but as she opened her eyes her exhale was stopped by a sight she wasn't expecting. What greeted Koishi at the horizon wasn't the sun. It was something far different. In the distance, where the sun should have been, was now only a black sphere. It was the very definiton of black. But even regardless it was emitting light. The black sphere was surrounded by redish orange glow that seemed to be originating from the surface of the sphere. This light however was very different from the light of the sun. One could feel it on their skin but it brought no warmth. Koishi was stunned for a moment. But then a grin grew to her face again.

"So it has begun...," Koishi could utter before white hot pain blinded her mind. This was accompanied by a painful cry from Koishi's mouth as she felt a hand grabbing her from behind and pulling her back down the hill. She could see Flandre's eyes as she fell past her. The look on her face was that of a madman. It was a mixture of rage, confusion, hatred, sadness and pain. The second in which they made eye contact felt like minutes and the moment was broken only when Koishi separated her eyes from Flandre's to look at her third eye that was now falling to the ground next to her, blood spewing out from the cords that used to keep the eye attached to Koishi's body. She fell to the ground and rolled down into the shadow from the light of that sphere that had risen above the horizon.

As I gathered myself from the ground, clutching my chest and head, I could see Flandre picking up the knife I had dropped after she had cut my third eye off from my body. My hand instinctually reached for my pocket and to the watch that was supposed to lay there but what I found was only a piece of ripped cloth. My eyes darted back and forth between Flandre and my dress where the pocket should have been. Flandre was staring at me. The knife in her left hand and the watch together with some ripped cloth in her right hand. The look on her face remained but now it was more to kin to a pure shock than madness. I could see that her back was illuminated by that light from that blackness. But no vapors were rising from her exposed neck, confirming my fears. That this light wouldn't suffice. I saw her turning towards the light, looking at it for a moment and then turning back towards me. I tried to form a grin to my face but I was unable to. A tear rolled down my cheek. Something I hadn't felt in hundreds of years. I looked at my now detached eye on the ground and then at Flandre who was now walking towards me. She had done this to me. I wanted to hurt her. I wanted to rip her mind apart. I wanted her to fear for her life. But the only thing that left me was a pitiful scream.

"AAAAAAAAH," I yelled as I glared at Flandre while sitting on the ground. She stopped and looked at me. My subconsciousness had faded away, clouded by my consciouss mind that was now unable to interract with my other selves. I was done for. I was alone. I tried to threaten Flandre but everything that escaped my mouth was just more of that pitiful bawling. Oh, to what I had been reduced into. After I realized that all that would be useless I curled up into a sad bundle and started to sob. Something I would have laughed at just a minute ago if someone had told me that I would do that.

"You deserved this, you undertand?" I could hear Flandre uttering as she stared at me. I hated her. I did with the bottom of my heart. I screamed at her as I launched myself up from the ground and tried to claw her face off from her head. She just stepped back and watched how I fell onto all fours after I couldn't reach her breaking into another sobbing session.

"You don't deserve to die. Not even after what you've done. But you can still set things right. Please, tell me, who's behind this and how can I stop them?" Flandre said as she stood before me just barely out of my reach. I wanted to spit at her. She thought that I would help her. She thought that after what she did to me I would have helped her to undo everything I've worked so hard to achieve. No, I laughed at the idea even if I was sobbing on all fours.

"YOU WILL DIE! EVERYTHING YOU LOVE AND BELIEVE IN WILL BURN TO ASHES! YOU THINK THAT WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO ME MEANS ANYTHING!? I WILL STILL BE STANDING AFTER EVERYTHING FALLS! I'LL SPIT ON YOUR CORPSE AND THIS WORLD! YOU'VE BEEN PLAYING TO OUR HAND FROM THE VERY BEGINGING! YOU'RE NOTHING, YOU HEAR ME!? NOTHING," I screamed at Flandre with the bottom of my lungs. I hated this. I hated every second of this. Conscious mind is so weak. I wanted to rip Flandre's mind apart but there was nothing I could do to her which was like rubbing salt to already rotting wounds. Only thing I could do was to scream my threats at her which were turned into pitiful cries as soon as they left my mind. Conscious mind is so weak. And on that note I finally got myself to stand up. Blood had stained my dress and shirt and the cut cords dangling from my body were still spewing blood.

"Please," I heard Flandre saying and lifting her hand towards me before I threw a handful of dirt at her and backed away from her while holding my still bleeding cords. While Flandre was wiping her face I picked up my now detached and dead third eye from the ground. I took one last hateful glare at her before I ran into the forest behind myself. I didn't want anything to do with Flandre or anything anymore. With my powers gone, replaced by my conscious mind I was weak, pitiful. I had lost. I had failed at the one duty I'd been tasked with. But that didn't matter. I took care of it long enough. The events had been set to motion. Even if I had lost the battle. We had win the war. And when Flandre would find that out there would be nothing she could do anymore.

Flandre simply stood still and watched me run into the woods once she had wiped the dirt from her face. She was confused. Our conforntation was over as suddenly as it had begun. Flandre looked at the watch in her hands. She then walked back to the top of the hillock. The black sphere was hanging above the horizon like an eye observing her.

"What the hell is that?" Flandre uttered in astonishment and in confusion. I could have told her, for I knew. But never would have I done it. Flandre kept looking at it for a while. And then at her body. The light wasn't hurting her. She could tell that much. That meant that it coudln't have been sun. Nor a solar eclipse. If it was one she should have felt the surge of power within her body but she felt nothing. This sphere, it was unnatural. The way it just hung there, looking at her ominously, it was wrong.

Flandre sat down. She had to gather her thoughts. Her mind was still messed up from what I had put her through and now this un-sun in the horizon. The world around her didn't make much sense at the moment and she still didn't know if she should be expecting this all to be just an illusion. Though with every passing second the world was starting to feel more and more real again.

"What she said. That this has happened before. And that I should have died here. Did I do it? Did I break the cycle?" Flandre thought to herself in confusion while sitting there.

"Should I be happy?" She continued now muttering slightly. She didn't know how she should have felt now. On one hand she had just been betrayed by someone who she had trusted almost blindly but then again she was still alive and well even if I had told her that this is where she would die. On top of that she had just gone through her personal hell within her head. That hadn't been even a battle. It was a torture. Torture she had escaped with sheer luck. Flandre sat down to think. Trying to restore her thoughts.

"If what Koishi said was true, if everything's been planned from the start and I'm just a pawn, what chance do I have on making a difference," Flandre thought to herself holding her head between her hands. She then looked at the watch and piece of cloth in her hand and the knife in the other. She took the cloth she had ripped from my dress, wrapped it around the blade of the knife so that she wouldn't cut herself by accident and put it to her pocket. She then focused onto the watch. It was cracked slightly. Clearly it didn't work anymore. One fact remained though. I had had this watch and claimed that I had just returned from swapping this one for the fixed one with Flandre back at the Hakurei Shrine. If this was true then the watch must not be relying on if it is broken or not to time travel. At least a slight crack didn't seem to remove its ability.

"Koishi... She knew where I'd be and at what time. Did she swap the watches and then come straight for me in the future?" Flandre thought to herself while flipping the watch in her hands inspecting it.

"She was heading to the outside world... She mentioned getting this watch fixed by someone so that she could swap it again," Flandre muttered. Her head was starting to hurt. All of this was way over her head. She then looked at the black sphere in the horizon again and then at the watch.

"She said that this is where I'd die. That I had never gone any further, what ever that means. But I'm still alive and I have the watch," Flandre tried to reason with herself.

"I have the watch and there's someone in the outside world who was supposed to fix this," Flandre uttered out loud and stood up.

"I'll find them and get my answers. If they are the culprit I'll beat them, if they're not, I'll force them to tell me how to find the culprit," Flandre said out loud while looking at the hills in the distance.

"The outside world...," Flandre uttered once more and the determination slowly faded from her face. She rememberd what she had done before Koishi had confronted her. She had had no succes in getting through the barrier.

"How will I be able to cross the barrier?" Flandre then uttered again before sitting down. The problem was before her eyes again.

"Koishi was gonna cross it. But how was she going to do it? Renko said that it... is a barrier set within a consciouss minds of the world," Flandre uttered and her eyes widened. She then smacked her forehead upon this realization.

"The barrier, it must have not affected her in any way. She could just pass through it without a problem," Flandre exclaimed but her enthusiasm was once again cut short.

"But how can I pass through?" She muttered.

"It's a barrier of common sense, separating fantasy from reality in once mind... thus creating a barrier... get rid of fantasy... get rid of Gensokyo... Maybe Marisa was onto something in the end," Flandre thought to herself while pondering the situation.

"I'm gonna give it a shot. I'll try to forget Gensokyo," Flandre finally thought to herself after coming to the conclusion that she should at least try it since she had nothing to lose. The best way she thought she could get thoughts of Gensokyo out of her head was to concentrate on something she knew was on the outside world. The first thing that came to mind was when she and Marisa had escaped Yamas into the outside world. She thought of the solar eclipse and skyscrapers in the distance which she still remembered vividly. Yet no matter how hard she tried she couldn't help but to also remember Marisa there with her and on that note she diverted her thoughts away. She didn't want to remember what happened next. Flandre then opened her eyes but saw no change in landscape. The forest, the hill, Gensokyo, everything was still how it had always been. Flandre then closed her eyes again. This time Flandre let her thoughts concentrate on Lunar Capital and everything she had seen on the moon. This seemed like a viable idea to her until she remembered that while Renko had been on the moon the Gensokyo and Lunar capital had practically been the same so she dropped her idea of the Lunar Capital there. Flandre tried her hardest on coming up with something to get her thoughts on anything related to Gensokyo go away but in the end she couldn't. Her knowledge on the outside world was lacking at the best and she had already spent a fairly long time in Gensokyo so everything that Gensokyo represented had already become part of her in a sense. Flandre then tried one last option. To just sit there and let her mind wonder not caring where it went. She took a deep breath and just let it happen.

The first thing that came to her mind was Marisa. How she was doing and if giving her the watch was the right cause of action. Flandre was worried about her but trusted that she could keep herself away from danger. She was like her in the end. A vampire. There shouldn't be too many things that could openly threaten Marisa. But this reminded Flandre of another thing. That Marisa was a vampire. And that she had sworn that she would find a cure. She still wanted to stand by her word but ultimately she couldn't help but to think that this incident, everything it had caused was getting in to way of this big time. First Rumia and after that, even I had turned out to be involved in all of this.

On Rumia's case Flandre felt for her. After learning about what she actually was she understood her hatred. But at the same time she didn't. What kind of ultimate prize would have waited her if she had succeeded in her plans? But that made her instantly think about me, about what I had said would be my prize should everything go as planned. A new world being born from the ashes of the old one. Flandre couldn't comprehend how such thing could be even possible. Who in the world could have such power as to create a new world. Even thinking about the world she currently lived in made her head hurt. The sheer complexity of it all. How something like that could be reconstructed. And why? For what purpose someone wanted to destroy the world and how they had even managed to get this far? For now it didn't matter for Flandre for according to all she could gather she had now gotten further than ever before. The cycle I had told her about had been broken and she would put a stop to this all. This however made her remember the mental torture she had just gone through. And even if she recalled that for a mere moment her thoughts were instantly driven back to those images. It frightened her how easily I could have dag into her subconsciousness and bring forth a personal hell into her mind. One certain image however stick to the backs of her retinas more than the others. The burning town. That had felt and seemed most real out of all she had seen. The setting seemed distant yet familiar and she just couldn't place it. It was like she had been there before but for some reason it just didn't seem right. The screams, the heat, the smells. Flandre felt like she should be familiar with them but she couldn't place them at all.

This troubled her so much that at first she didn't realized that the wind had died down and it had gotten significantly warmer. It was nowhere near an autumn temperature anymore. It was more like middle of the summer. Flandre kept skimming through the image in her head of that burning town again and again so deeply that she was unable to notice the changes around her. Trying to make sense of that image in her head was starting to prove futile. At that moment she got to the point where the Remilia swallowed her whole which made her snap out of it and realize the sudden stopping of the wind and increase in temperature. Her eyes burst open only to give her an image of something that she wasn't expecting. The hill, the forest, Gensokyo behind it. It was gone. It had all disappeared. Instead of blueish skies and green plains in fron of her. Her eyes were met with a wasteland. Twisted landscape formed from endless rubble of buildings, items, vehicles, all sorts and from all ages. It was all covered with really thin and easily seen through redish fog that turned into red clouds when Flandre looked upwards. From between the clouds she could see dark sky devoid of all stars and light. The only source of light in that place seemed to be the black sphere in the sky that was still visible and had seemed to become bigger. The air was heavy, still and quite warm. But not in a pleasant summer evening way. More of a musty rain forest way. The light the sphere provided wasn't much but it was more than enough to make the landscape before Flandre's eyes visible for as long as her eyes could see. The landscape didn't change. No matter where she looked. Crooked buildings rising from the ground and reaching for the sky and all this rubble covering the ground so that no actual ground could be seen anywhere making the land look pretty grey while being engulfed in this thin red fog.

"My god...," was the only thing Flandre could utter as she stood up and took her first step forward. The outside world was far different than she remembered it in her head. And that was definitely not a good sign.

...

"B- bye...," Marisa uttered with still a bit confused tone and look on her face. She heard Flandre walking on her terrace and stepping onto the grass before taking off. Marisa looked at the watch in her hands.

"What do you make of this?" Marisa asked while looking beside her at her doppelganger, the same that had saved her from the Rumia in the first place.

"She cares about you. So much so that she doesn't even realize that that watch may just be the key element of this incident. If she truly understood how much weight that object holds I'm sure she wouldn't have given it to you," the doppelganger responded with serious look on her face. She then took her eyes away from the watch and looked at Marisa.

"In any case as long as you don't lose that watch it should stay safe with us. We're literally running out of time. I was already able to see that girl so that means that this reality is on the brink of the rupture," the doppelganger continued with much more concerned tone and look on her face.

"Okay, so what now? How do we start to approach things?" Marisa asked and put the watch into her pocket.

"Our main priority is to find the culprit. Do that and we can win. But to find the culprit we must first rule out the possibilities who definitely are not behind all of this," the doppelganger responded with thoughtful look on her face.

"Well we can rule out Rumia for now. She was working together with the culprit but apparently she wasn't the one," Marisa said and shrugged her shoulders.

"I'd also rule out the sages. I see no reason as for why they would be causing all of this. Although I'd still be careful around them. Also the humans. They cannot be behind this since they're more of a victim of all of this," the doppelganger added with thoughtful look on her face.

"That leaves... a crap ton of possibilities," Marisa then sighed and shook her head.

"But few stand out," the doppelganger added.

"Yuuka and Alice. There's something about those two that I don't yet know," Marisa then muttered while looking down while rubbing her chin.

"And what do you bet that if we find out what that something is...," the doppelganger started.

"We'll be step closer to solving all of this," Marisa finished the sentence and nodded at her doppelganger. Both exchanged slight grind before turning towards the front door of Marisa's house and stepping out. It was finally time for Marisa to get to the bottom of this mystery that had been circling around Alice for a goof time now. The chill night air was still and the sky was cloudless. If it had been a normal night this would have been a terrific time to go star gazing. But this was no ordinary night. In fact Marisa wasn't sure if she even remembered the last normal night she had had. They looked around themselves. The Forest of Magic was unusually quiet now when there weren't youkai and fairies flying around. Marisa gave a slight nod to her doppelganger and they both took flight towards Alice's house. They didn't dare to rise above the trees. If they did there would have been too big of a chance that they would have been spotted by someone. Or more like Marisa would have been. Her doppelganger was stillinvisible to others. So instead they decided to just navigate through the trees which slowed them down but not too much.

During their short flight they spotted many seemingly uncosciouss youkai and fairies. It seemed that they had been knocked cold all of a sudden since all of them were just laying all around. Marisa couldn't help but to chuckle a little when she saw Narumi laying on the ground with bunch of fairies laying on top of her. She however couldn't stop to take in that amusing view because she had to hurry before Alice would return to her house. Alice's house wasn't far anymore so their flight didn't take too long until they saw the first glimpse of the familiar looking white house behind the trees. Immediately upon seeing this both Marisa and her doppelganger landed and took a good look at the scene before them. They wanted to make sure they wouldn't be caught. There were no lights on. No movement of dolls anywhere to be seen or any other movement what so ever.

"So, what do you think?" Marisa asked while looking at the scenery. The house looked deserted.

"I don't know, you're the youkai here. Shouldn't you know if there's someone around?" Marisa's doppelganger responded without even looking at her.

"I've been vampire little over a couple of weeks. I don't know how things work," Marisa retorted. Her doppelganger just rolled her eyes and kept looking at the house. It truly seemed that there was nobody around. Marisa then finally took a one careful step forward.

"Okay, I'm gonna go investigate the situation. You stay here and warn me if someone approaches," Marisa said while switching her gaze between her doppelganger and the house. The doppelganger simply nodded and stayed still as Marisa started to approach the house slowly but surely. Marisa stopped to take a one last glance at her surroundings before she stepped onto the open. She knew that if there was someone home they would see her stepping onto the open yard from the inside of the house. The windows to the house showed nothing but darkness so she couldn't tell if someone was inside or not. Marisa took a deep breath and dashed through the open yard as quickly as she could until she reached the wall of he house. Marisa quickly duck next to the wall and let her breath eaven a little bit. Once she had caught her breath she pressed her ear against the wall of the house trying to find if there were any movements within the house making noise. There was nothing. It was all dead silent. This made Marisa ease a little for now she was pretty confident that no one was home. Marisa then stood up from beside the wall and started making her way to the terrace side of the house while constantly making sure she couldn't hear anyone. Upon reaching the terrace she once again looked around herself just to make sure. After proving to herself that there was no one around she climbed to the terrace and sidled to the window next to the door. She squatted under it and then slowly peeked her head up to see inside. It took her a moment to make out what was inside but once she did she could clearly recognize... a pare of eyes.

"Hyaah," Marisa squealed and fell to her back. Her heart was racing as she shot up from the terrace floor but stopped before she could do anything else. She looked to her side where she could see her doppelganger approaching her from the bushes trying to see what was going on but Marisa signed her to stay put. She then approached the window again and for a second look. She almost pressed her face to the glass to make out the dimly glowing eyes on the other side. Just as she had thought, it was just a doll turned to face the window. Marisa sighed for releaf and stuck out her thumb for her doppelganger to see to signal her that everything was alright. Once Marisa had gotten her nerves to settle she made her way to the front door. She figured that if there was someone inside they would know she was around already so might as well go straight in. She took hold onto the door knob, inhaled deeply and turned it. It wasn't locked, the door clicked indicating that it was now open. Marisa let go of the knob and let the door turn open. The dim light from the cloudless nightsky illuminated the insides of Alice's house. It didn't seem anybody was home. The house was absolutely silent. Marisa walked in and closed the door behind her.

"Alright, we're here again. This time I wont let anything slip by," Marisa thought to herself as she looked around herself in the dim house. First she turned to her left and walked into the living room. She wanted to make sure there were no dolls surveilling the building while Alice was gone. She entered the living room and looked around herself. There were few dolls sitting on the shelves and the table in the middle of the room.

"Sorry about this Alice. Cannot be too careful," Marisa uttered and proceeded to collect every single doll off from the shelves and the table. She then looked around herself and saw a small cupboard.

"That'll do," Marisa thought to herself, walked up to the cupboard, opened it and stuffed all the dolls into it. She closed the cupboard door once she was done then turned around and pushed an armchair against the cupboard door so that the dolls couldn't get out if they were sentient. Once she was done with the dolls Marisa cleaned her hands from the dust and looked around herself again. The place felt much better now when when there were no dolls in sight.

"Alright, the most important first, the kids," Marisa muttered and made her way out from the living room and into the vestibule that was connected to the staircase going up into Alice's room. Marisa still vividly remembered how to access the hidden basement Alice had. Marisa walked up to the stairs and squatted down. She grabbed the floorboard closest to the stairs and moved it. Underneath was the familiar switch. Marisa pulled it and together with the familiar click the stairs started to descend to the position where they would lead to the basement. A low rumble could be heard the whole time the stairs moved which made Marisa worry a bit that someone outside could hear it. Despite this, once the stairs had settled to their new places and the faint click could be heard indicating that they were done Marisa took her first careful step towards the cellar she had mixed feelings about. Marisa walked down the slightly spiraling steps until she finally saw the dark opening before her eyes. The cellar was just like she had last seen it. Or at least she didn't notice any changes. When she stepped to the floor level of the cellar she saw to her releaf all the kids still laying on the stony floor of the cellar. Marisa sighed for releaf and kneeled down to inspect the children. She pressed her hand to the neck of one of the kids and she could feel the familiar and releaving heart beat.

"Good toknow that Alice doesn't seem to want to kill you. Don't worry, I'll get you out eventually," Marisa uttered and was just about to stand up when her eyes locked to the spot where she had touched the child's neck. She looked at the blue vein under her finger. It was like she was entranced but soon snapped out of it when she felt a small amount of salive trickling from her mouth to her hand. Marisa winced at this and shot up from the ground.

"NO! I dare not to think those kinds of things," Marisa yelled to herself and slapped her own cheek and shook her head. She then took a deep breath and lifted her gaze from the floor to look around herself a little bit. When she squinted her eyes she could see something behind the sleeping kids near the back wall of the room. Marisa got curious of what it was and started making her way towards it while trying to avoid stepping onto some unfortunate kid on the ground. Once she reached the thing at the back of the room she noticed that it was some kind of bedestal and on top of it was a book. Marisa leaned closer only for her interest to peak even more. It was the book Alice usually kept with herself and never let her see what was in it. Marisa was almost ecstatic. She had never had the opportunity to peek inside before. There was a lock keeping the book closed but it seemed that it wasn't locked at the moment. Marisa quickly flipped the cover of the book open to see what it held inside. Upon laying her eyes onto the contents she was mildly disappointed. She was expecting to see some writing but what she saw caught her off guard. There was text but it was nothing Marisa could undertsand and all the text she saw was sparsely scattered around the pages accompanied with larger symbols that looked like diagrams. There was nothing she could make out from those symbols. She had never seen diagrams such as these. To her they had no meaning but they had to be of some kind of magical importance. She flipped the pages fruther but every time she was met with the same sight. Diagrams and writing she couldn't understand although the more she looked at it the more familiar the writing started to become. She could swear that she had seen it somewhere before but she couldn't really tell where. She kept flipping through the pages and the diagrams suddenly started to become more and more familiar looking. They started to resemble diagrams and equations she was familiar with but they were still somewhat alien. That was until she reached the final page. On that page she saw a picture that wasn't like what she had seen before. It looked like a map and the more she looked at it the more familiar it became. It was when Marisa picked the book up and flipped it that it clicked to her. It was the map of Makai. And upon that realization she remembered where she had seen those symbols before. Back before she ended up in this body she made her expedation to Makai and there she found those same symbols etched to the landscape all around.

"Wait a second. Didn't Shinki tell me that she had taught those symbols to someone? Was that one Alice?" Marisa muttered out loud while marveling at the book in her hands.

"Who knows what this book may hold within it," Marisa uttered and after thinking for a moment she took the book and hid it into her clothes. She knew that Alice would be upset after finding out that her book would be gone but she couldn't help it. She wanted to study it even more. Though this really wasn't the best time for that. She then turned around and quickly made her way back to the entrance of the basement. She looked behind herself one last time before walking up the stairs again hastily. She now knew that the kids still were in the basement and that they were alive and well. She now only had to tell it to someone and Alice would be caught. She made her way back to the main floor level and flipped the switch as soon as she did. The stairs started rising up onto their original position again. Marisa looked around herself. She then remembered that the last time she had been there she hadn't had time to check Alice's work room that was just beyond the living room. She then glanced behind her and looked at the stairs moving up.

"I'm gonna check out Alice's work room and then I'll find out what she has in those locked drawers of her's," Marisa thought to herself ans started making her way back to the living room. While walking through it she made sure to take a good look at the cupboard she had stuffed the dolls into. It seemed that there weren't any signs of struggle to get it open. She figure that the dolls must have not been living but it never hurt to be sure so she decided to leave them to the cupboard for now. The living room was immediately to the left when looked from the front door of the house and the door to Alice's work room was on the far right corner of the right side wall when looked from the treshold to the living room. Marisa made her way there and tried the door knob. She had been in that room before so she found it no surprise that the door wasn't locked. This gave away the impression that Alice didn't keep the things she wanted hidden within that room but Marisa pushed the door open and entered it anyway. The room was quite dull. The first thing the person entering the room would see was a desk and chair facing the wall opposite of the door and above those was a window through which one could see the treeline of the Forest of Magic. To the left there was a quite large cupboard with many drawers that Alice used to hold her raw materials for her dolls. And to the right there were these big cabinets that were build into the walls by the looks of things. Marisa first walked up to the cupboard and started pulling the drawers open. She rummaged through the contents but all she found was cloth, string, sewing equipment and materials for making gunpowder. The smell of sulphur made Marisa cringe and she had to back away from the cupboard. She then gently pushed the drawers closed with her feet while holding her nose with her hands. Marisa had never liked the smell of sulphur even though she had to work with it from time to time with her magical research. She then glanced at the working desk. It didn't have any drawers and it only had a sewing machine and some other equipment laying on top of it so that didn't really peak her interest. She then moved her attention to the cabinet. She had never taken a look inside it nor had it ever been brought up by Alice that she would hold something in it. Marisa quickly walked up to it and tried to open it. It was locked.

"Well, well, well, what's in here?" Marisa muttered with confident grin on her face. She then kneeled down and pulled a hairpin from her pocket that she used to tamper with locks if she ever needed to. She bent the hair pin a little to make it more suitable for the task at hand and then stuck it into the keyhole. After feeling around for a moment Marisa started to grasp how to crack the lock. She could have just pulled the door open breaking the with brute force but she didn't like that way of approaching things. After a moment she could feel the lock turning all the way and a familiar mechanic click confirmed that it was open.

"A-ha," Marisa exclaimed as she stood up and flung the door open. But what she saw in the cabinet almost sent her stumbling to her back in shock. As soon as she had opened the cabinet door she was met with eyes staring back at her. But those eyes were glazed and lifeless but it still took Marisa a good moment to let that sink in. No matter how many times it happened Marisa could never get used to being stared back by a doll even if it wasn't alive. But once Marisa had caught her breath again it became apparent that this was no ordinary doll Alice usually used. This one seemed to be tall, much taller than Alice's normal dolls. In fact it seemed to be the same size as Marisa. But the face of the doll was what caught her off guard. It was the exact copy of Alice's own face. It had no expression and it just stared forward unmoving. Marisa approached it carefully and poked the naked rubber coated plastic body of that doll. It didn't react. Marisa inspected the doll looking at it from every angle.

"Why would Alice create a perfect copy of herself in a form of a doll and then hide it away," Marisa thought to herself while touching the skin of the doll. It was clear that a lot of time was put into it. Even veins and wrinkles had been etched into the smooth rubber coating the dolls surface. Marisa's eyes even happened to wonder a little too low for her own comfort. The doll had been detailed even there where Marisa least expected it. She backed away blushing profusely.

"Why does she have this? You couldn't be made for... no, Alice doesn't love herself _that much_," Marisa uttered while trying to clear the unwanted image from her head. But she had to admit, this was the most realistic looking doll Marisa had ever seen Alice create. None of her other dolls were this detailed. Hell, she couldn't have told the difference between the doll and Alice if it wasn't for the fact that it didn't react to any stimulus Marisa gave it. She then backed away from the doll a few steps and looked at the cabinet's contents. There were few other more normal looking dolls in it together with that unnervingly realistic one but nothing else. Marisa was quite disappointed by this. Although she had definitely not expected to find a doll like this she had hoped to find at least something else. However Marisa still couldn't think any purpose this doll could serve which made it even more bizarre. Nevertheless it wasn't like she could take that doll with her as well so she had to leave it be for now. Marisa sighed, grabbed the cabinet door and closed it. There was only one place to rummage anymore. The cupboards that had been locked in Alice's room the last time she had been here.

Marisa made sure to leave as little traces of herself behind as she left Alice's working room although she was sure that Alice would notice evetually that the lock on her cabinet had been tampered with. Marisa however didn't bother think too much about that and made her way back into the vestibule once again. Once she reached it she turned her head towards the stairs that once again were on their correct places. With confident steps she made her way to the stairs and started making her way to the upstairs. In few moments she had already made her way to the upstairs level and was staring at the door of Alice's room. Marisa reached for the door knob, twisted it and let it creak open. As the door opened the dim room was revealed before Marisa's eyes. It was pretty much just as she remembered. Everything was the same as she remembered. With couple steps she made her way through the door frame and into the room and looked around herself. The room was as well kept as it had been. No dust anywhere nor had anything been moved around.

"Alright, let's see what you have here," Marisa muttered as she stepped further into the room and made her way to the drawers on Alice's desk she remembered were locked. Once she reached them she gave them a little budge only to find that they were still locked although she wasn't expecting them to be open in the first place. Marisa then kneeled down and proceeded to do the same to the drawers as she had done to the cabinet. The lock on the drawers proved to be much more difficult than the one on the cabinet but this only further motivated Marisa to get them open.

"Come on," Marisa groaned as she tried to twist the lock into submission but this proved to be not so simple as the hairpin she used suddenly snapped and the other half got stuck into the keyhole.

"Ah, damn it," Marisa let out while taking a deep breath to contain her frustration. She then threw away the rest of the hairpin she had held in her hand and proceeded to crab the handle of the drawer.

"I'm sorry about this Alice," Marisa uttered and sighed before jerking the drawer with one swift movement. The lock in itself still didn't give away but the wood around it did as the drawer came off from its socket on the desk. Marisa wiped her face to get rid of all the splinters that had been sent flying as she had broken the front panel of the drawer.

"Okay, let's see what you were hiding," Marisa uttered as she stood up and looked down to see what the drawer contained. Marisa reached down with her hand and picked up a stack of papers. Fairly new by the looks of things. Marisa took the one that was on top of the pile to take a better look at it while she put the rest on top of the desk. It seemed to be a letter of some sorts. Though it was not written by Alice, that was for sure. She knew what her hand writing looked like and this was nothing like her's.

"Alice, I'm thankful of your updates on the situation within Gensokyo but I'm worried that I haven't made any progress on my end. I haven't been able to figure out my way in here. No matter where I go, what direction I take it is all always just the same. I've tried everything yet I fear that this all has been just a trap. The culprit is not in the outside world and if they are, I haven't been able to find a single trace of them. I'm losing my hope at this point, we've been played from the start. This will be my last letter to you. If you ever get a new letter from me you'll know that I've made progress and if not, well in that case you know what happened to me. Do not trust that vampire. Yuuka," Marisa muttered out loud as she read through the letter. The paper fell from marisa's hands.

"Yuuka... She and Alice... Alice has know all this time where she has been? These papers... What have these two been talking about?" Marisa uttered in shock and confusion as she quickly reached for the papers on the desk and started skimming through them. All of them were from Yuuka thanking Alice for information she had apparently given to Yuuka about Gensokyo. As she kept skimming through more and more papers she started realizing for how long Yuuka had been gone. No one usually had business with her so it started to make sense to her how her disappearance had gone unnoticed by so many and for so long. And when she finally reached the last, or more like the first paper at the bottom of the stack she finally realized for how long this had been going on. The oldest letter went so far back as to describe the Perfect Posession incident.

"Has Yuuka been gone... for this long?" Marisa uttered as she looked at the papers in her hands. It was all so lot to take in all at once.

"I have to get these to Yukari and the other immediately. Gods, I told Flandre to get to the outside world. I hope I didn't sent her to her death," Marisa stopped and thought to herself before she started to stuff the papers into her pockets. Once she had stuffed all the papers into her clothes she picked up the one she had dropped from the ground. And as she was putting that one into her pocket as well, her eyes hit one sentence that stood out from the rest of the contents.

"Do not trust that vampire."

"What did Yuuka mean by that? What vampire, was she talking about Flandre? Remilia? Or me? No, it couldn't be me, I hadn't turned into vampire when she apparently disappeared... although who am I to say what Alice has told her. Fuck, fuck, fuck, I need to get to the bottom of this," Marisa thought to herself and was just about to rush out from Alice's room and out from her house when she heard something from behind her. It was coming from the window of the room she was in that was facing the front yard. It had sounded like a pebble hitting a glass panel. Marisa turned to look at what it was. She walked up to the window and looked at the yard. At first she saw nothing but after a few moments she noticed a faint glimmer coming from the forest, like a candle. She squinted her eyes to see what it was. It was her doppelganger. She was using some kind of spell to emit some light. Marisa looked at her in confusion until she saw that her doppelganger was doing this to get her attention. Her doppelganger was pointing at the yard. It took her a moment to notice this but when she did and looked at what she was pointing she saw Alice walking towards the front door.

"Oh shit," Marisa uttered, turned around and started rushing out from Alice's room and down the stairs. She had hoped that Alice wouldn't return to her home so of course her luck would determine that that would be exactly what happened. Marisa reached the bottom of the stairs just in time to hear Alice stepping onto her terrace. She couldn't get out without being noticed so she had to hide and hope that she could slip out without Alice noticing.

Alice stepped into her house and closed the door behind herself. She then picked up an oil lamp from a shelve on a wall and lit it.

"Damn, things are getting out of hands. Please Yuuka, just send me a letter with some good news. People have started to turn their gazes towards the outside world, just as you feared," Alice muttered as she took off the scarf from her shoulders and put it hanging to a hook under the shelve. Marisa stared silently at Alice from above. While clutching a wooden beam on the roof. In her haste she hadn't come up with any other hiding spot so once she noticed the wooden beam she took the opportunity without a second thought. Alice hadn't looked up which meant that so far Marisa had gone unnoticed. But it was when she saw that Alice started making her way towards the living room that she remembered that the couch she had moved was still against the cupboard and as soon as she would notice this her cover would be blown.

"Alright, I think it's time for me to make my get away," Marisa thought to herself just before Alice stepped into her living room doorway. Alice reached her living room around this time and the sight that she met in her living room must have made her stop as Marisa saw her just standing there but couldn't see her expression as she was facing away from her. Marisa dropped down as silently as she could but apparently this wasn't silent enough because as soon as she touched the floor her eyes were met with Alice's. There was a brief moment when the two just looked at each other in silence. That silence was finally broken when Alice suddenly sighed and cracked a slight smile while looking a little bit downwards before lifting her gaze back up to look at Marisa again.

"You know, at first I thought someone had actually broken into my house with malicious intent," Alice uttered and chuckled a bit and visibly laid down her guard. Marisa was taken back by this. She was confused and surprised. She had thought that Alice would attack her if she found her from her house.

"W- what are you talking abo-," Marisa managed to stutter out loud before she was cut short by Alice, "Ehh, there's so much I should explain but all and all the first thing you have to know that you don't have to worry, I'm not your enemy. Or should I say, you're not my enemy." Marisa just looked at Alice with confused look on her face but still didn't dare to come closer to Alice in fear that this was all just to get her to lay lay down her own guard. She just looked how Alice walked into the living room and started moving the couch that was pushed against the cupboard Marisa had used to hide the dolls in.

"You don't have to worry. You're no longer on my suspect list for the possible culprit or their assistant. Rumia revealed us everything. You can rest easy. And... sorry about revealing your secret in front of everyone," Alice uttered while pushing the couch back to its position. While Marisa just stared at her with still utterly confused look on her face.

"I don't expect you to forgive me immediately but I'll try to repay you by trying to defend you when... well, the others turn their attention to you, if that time ever comes," Alice said while opening the cupboard and peeking inside.

"Wait, what are you on about?" Marisa finally managed to stutter out while looking at seemingly calm acting Alice. Alice then finally stopped, she looked at the doll she had picked up from the cupboard and then turned her gaze towards Marisa.

"I'm sorry. I truly am, for suspecting that you had any part in all of this. I'll try to fill you in with all the details the best I can," Alice said with seemingly regretful look on her face.

"Yeah!? Well you better start explaining. You've got an awful lot of it to do," Marisa spat while folding her arms akimbo.

"Well first of all, I was actually told that you were here in my house. I came looking for you. It seems Koishi was right," Alice said while putting the doll down onto the table in the living room and squatting down to take the rest out from the cupboard.

"Koishi? What does she have to do with this?" Marisa asked with much more surprised and less angry and accusatory tone.

"After you had ran away and we had dealt with Rumia, Koishi told me to go search for you in my house. That's all she told me. I guess it is important to her that I fill you in with everything as soon as it is possible," Alice responded and shrugged her shoulders. Marisa then seemingly allowed herself to relax a little as she stepped forward and leaned against the doorframe while waiting for Alice to continue.

"Yeah, as I said, I truly did suspect you for the murder of that child back then. You have to understand that I had to take every possibility into consideration. You were one of the strong candidates for that murder. But now I'm just happy that it wasn't the case," Alice continued with gentle smile on her lips.

"And now you're confident enough to tell me what the hell you were up to?" Marisa asked with doubtful tone and look on her face. Alice glanced at her briefly before looking back at the dolls she was carrying while she put them to their original places.

"What I'm up to? The only thing I'm up to is to find out a way to resolve this incident. I've been doing keen investigation myself you know," Alice continued as she set one of the dolls back to facing the window, the very same one Marisa had seen while sneaking on her terrace. But that wasn't on her mind at the moment. She had the perfect moment to bust Alice her secret she was holding in her basement.

"Investigation you say? That includes kidnapping half the kids of the village and hiding them in your basement?" Marisa asked with accusatory tone while taking a one confident step closer to Alice. Alice stopped upon hearing this. There was a brief silence during which Alice didn't even glance at Marisa.

"Yes," Alice finally uttered and continued returning the last dolls to their original places but Marisa was less than satisfied with this.

"Excuse me? You admit kidnapping children from the human village, hiding them away and then act like that's completely okay?" Marisa spat out with irritated tone and look on her face.

"Listen, you're getting ahead of things. I was going to tell you about that too but it seems you already know about it. And since you know that I assume you've searched through my house already and know other things too," Alice tried to calm Marisa down after facing her now when she had returned the dolls to their spots.

"The doll version of yourself and your letters to Yuuka? Yeah, you better start explaining real quick," Marisa retorted with her arms still akimbo.

"Okay, let me start from the very beginging. The roots of this incident go far back. Further than you or Reimu could even guess. And the person who realized the signs first was, you guessed it, Yuuka," Alice started while sitting onto the couch she had pushed away from the cupboard.

"It was actually around when you had your visit to the Lunar Capital. You know, the deal with Junko and that Hell lady? Yeah, Yuuka was having bad feeling about things already back then," Alice continued while staring at Marisa.

"Why's that? How could she know about anything already back then when nothing had happened already?" Marisa asked with doubtful look on her face.

"That's where you're wrong. Her servant, Elly, that scythe wielding gatekeeper of her's had started to act weird. Me and Yuuka are old acquaintances so outside her household I was the only person she trusted with this information in fear of who ever was causing it catching up to the fact that she already knew that something was up," Alice continued while looking at Marisa from the couch. Marisa then took a few careful but curious steps forward.

"Yuuka started researching the matter and as the time passed and no solution for Elly's condition came up she started to get worse and worse and finally, all that remained was...," Alice paused her explanation and stared at Marisa.

"She got absorbed by her timeline...," Marisa uttered and her eyes widened upon realization.

"Exactly. Yuuka is a clever being. It took her a while but eventually she figured out what was causing Elly to go absolutely nuts. And that's when she decided to take the matters into her own hands. She deduced that the culprit was most likely occupied in the outside world based on the research she had done herself," Alice continued her explanation. Marisa was taken back by all of this. Suddenly remembering in which state she had seen Yuuka's mansion in when she had visited it made sense. The books laying around. They were Yuuka's research material.

"So what became of Elly? Was she dealt with?" Marisa finally asked after thinking about the situation for a moment.

"Well yes, but not in a way we managed to deal with the absorbed threatening us... or should I say Rumia dealt with. In the end Yuuka wasn't able to find a way to return Elly to her normal state so she ended up sealing her into the scythe she was carrying. You know, to make sure she wouldn't harm anybody and to keep her safe. After that she left to the outside world but not before telling me to keep her updated on what's going on in Gensokyo and to keep eye on the events that would occur while she was gone," Alice continued with her explanation.

"So those letters... Wait, how was Yuuka able to just 'go' to the outside world and how were you two able to communicate with each other with those letters?" Marisa suddenly asked with much more doubtful look on her face again.

"Heh, you're clever, which is one of the reasons why I feel like trusting you with this information is for the best," Alice uttered and chuckled a bit. Marisa just looked at her with a bit confused look on her face and tilted her head.

"That book I assume you took from my basement. The one laid onto that pedestal. Yeah, I used that," Alice said and chuckled a bit more. Marisa then pulled the book she had bene hiding in her clothes and looked at it with troubled look on her face.

"That book. I got it from Makai. It was written by and given to me as a gift by Shinki. The creator of that land. I assume you remember her. That book contains magics likes of which you could only dream of. The language in it, it is... well it is hard to explain. But all you have to know is that the language in which the book is written is this really powerful and ancient language. I can understand and even speak it but that in itself is not enough. One has to also be able to grasp the concepts used in the language. And let me tell you, it is not an easy task with the limitations of our minds. But with the little understanding I have over that language and contents of the book I was able to bend the reality so that I could assist Yuuka getting into outside world and I even managed to make it so that we could swap letters with each other. All this required a huge effort on my part though," Alice explained the best she could while holding her forehead with her hand like she was having a migrane.

"Why keep all this secret? We could have maybe prevented this all before it got out of hands," Marisa then said with a little more calm tone.

"I don't believe so. Neither did Yuuka. We agreed that the best course of action was to lay low because who ever was doing all of this had certainly organized it well. The most recent events are a proof of that," Alice responded while moving her hand away from her face and looking at Marisa.

"I guess. But you still haven't explained everything," Marisa continued and the look on her face strickened.

"Yes. First of all the doll I presume you found from my working room. I especilly made that thing to easy my investigations. It required tons of effort but eventually I managed in getting it working. It is a spare body of sorts. Allowing me to be in two places at the same time. Convenient, even if it is a exhausting to use," Alice continued and Marisa could see a hint of pride creeping onto Alice's face. She really did consider that specific doll to be a benchmark of her work.

"So with that doll...," Marisa started but her sentence was completed by Alice.

"...I managed to capture the children of the human village without a hitch and have an alibi at the same time. I truly was visiting Narumi during that night but I was controlling that doll and many other of my dolls to pull it off at the same time. Do I even have to say that I was exhausted?" Alice said and shook her head.

"But why?" Marisa then blurted out the question that had circled in her mind from the day she had first discovered those children in Alice's basement.

"To protect them. That is the simple answer. Yuuka and I didn't know what was the motive and the goal behind this incident so we decided to play it safe. Make sure the human village, what ever happens, wouldn't be destroyed. Of course I couldn't take all of the children. That was impossible even for me and would have caused mass hysteria within the village," Alice explained calmly and looked at Marisa dead in the eye.

"Well what you did surely caused it nonetheless," Marisa responded but the irritation and anger she had felt before had started to vanish.

"I know, you just have to understand that I was only trying protect that which was of the most immediate importance. And yeah, I'm sorry for accusing you for the murder," Alice finished her explanation and sighed deeply while seemingly sinking a bit deeper into the couch she was sitting on. There was a silence again. Marisa finally had her answers and they were a lot more surprising than she had anticipated. But all and all she had to admit that she was releaved to learn that Alice may not have dark connections to this incident after all.

"So... what now? What is the plan you two had?" Marisa finally broke the silence by asking. Alice lifted her gaze back up to look at her.

"A good question. If you read the letters I had received from Yuuka you'd have learned that we haven't communicated in a long while. Weeks in fact. The last letters we exchanged was during the day you were turned into a vampire," Alice responded with not so energetic tone anymore. She was seemingly clueless about the situation.

"We just have to make sure the watch is kept safe and while doing so try to figure out any possible hints pointing us towards the main culprit and resolving of this incident," Alice added and moved her gaze from Marisa to the window to look at the dark but cloudless night. Marisa suddenly remembered the watch she held in her pocket.

"Should I tell her that I have it? Crap, she doesn't even know I sent Flandre to the outside world," Marisa thought to herself while looking at the plaintive Alive.

"By the way. About the contents of that last letter, who did Yuuka mean by 'that vampire'?" Marisa finally managed to ask out of careful curiosity.

"I don't know, she wasn't specific, but I have a hunch. At first I thought she might have meant Remilia or Flan but... I don't see either of them posessing the... this may sound harsh but I don't believe either of them are intelligent enough for scheme of this grandure. On top of that, Flan is no longer even in the picture so I really can't count her in anymore. Then I thought it might have been a reference to you which further strengthened my suspicions of you but ultimately I think you too already know who it is referring to," Alice said while looking at Marisa.

"You mean Flandre?" Marisa asked carefully.

"Exactly. Don't you find it odd that Flandre seems to be the only one seemingly unaffected by the incident. Hell, she even is the original bearer of the watch and just 'happened to appear' when all started to go to shit. On top of that she always just seems to happen to be always there when something big happens. As if the events revolved around her," Alice elaborated her thoughts.

"Well I can't deny anything you just said. And... to be honest I haven't even given any thought to the possibility that Flandre may very well be thr one responsible for all of this. But how would have Yuuka known about her when she warned you about 'that vampire'? Flandre appeared months after she had disappeared." Marisa then asked with a bit confused tone and a look on her face.

"I... never even thought about it. She never told me anything else related to her statement in that final letter," Alice uttered and the look on her face suddenly switched to very thoughtful.

"By the way, where Flandre is at the moment?" Alice then suddenly asked while still looking out from the window. Marisa was taken back by this question. She hadn't thought how to bring up that she now had the watch, let alone that she had sent Flandre to outside world now when Yuuka had clearly stated in the letter that outside world was apparently dead end.

S- shouldn't you know better than I? I haven't seen her after she visited me earlier this night," Marisa managed to stutter. Alice turned to look at her with a bit confused look on her face but didn't add anything. Marisa could sigh for a releaf for now. She had a bit more time to think about how she would bring up the possible mistake she had made.

"In any case, I think it might be best if we resolved this mistake I made with revealing your secrets of the past," Alice said and sighed a little bit. Marisa was once again a little taken back by what Alice said. She again remembered how Alice had told about her past in front of everyone to get them to side with her in her suspicions of her.

"What do you mean by that?" Marisa asked with careful and a little frightful tone and look on her face.

"I mean to let you and Reimu talk about it. I believe it is high time for her to learn about it. Don't worry, I'll back you up should anything go wrong," Alice explained and stood up from her couch but Marisa wasn't so convinced by this.

"Go wrong? She's Reimu. REI-MU! Our friendship will be over once she learns the truth," Marisa retorted witha little panicked look on her face.

"Well didn't I tell everyone already? So she already knows the truth. Or, the exaggerated version of if that I blurted out. It is better to handle the situation again in much more peaceful enviroinment and let her know what truly happened," Alice insisted with calm tone.

"I have a bad feeling about it. She has tendency to act first and ask questions later. Couldn't we go through this once the incident is dealt with?" Marisa asked and held her head.

"There may not be us anymore once the incident cools down. It is better to have closure to all of this while it is possible. And it is better to do it sooner rather than later," Alice said with a little more strict look on her face. Marisa just sighed and shook her head as she walked further into the living room from the frame of the doorway against which she had leaned thus far.

"Besides, she should be here at any minute now. I left a note telling her to meet me at my house beside her before I left so as soon as she wakes up she should see it. I figured that I'd let you two go through everything here since Koishi told me I'd find you here as well," Alice suddenly added and Marisa didn't seem to be delighted at all upon hearing this.

"You did WHAT!? Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Marisa exclaimed before she could sat down to another couch near the one Alice had sat in.

"You were so keen on getting the answers to your questions out of me that I didn't get the chance to tell you," Alice simply responded, shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. Marisa could only sigh in frustration and sink into the couch as she sat down. Alice looked at Marisa for a good while until she finally turned towards kitchen and left the living room.

"I'm gonna get some tea. Please don't run away," Alice said as she left the room. Marisa let out a simple grunt as a responce

"How did I even get myself into this mess? Oh yeah, Alice is gonna make me tell the whole story about it to Reimu," Marisa thought to herself with grumpy look on her face. Grumpy could however only hardly describe her mood. It was more along the lines of scared. Scared to lose her friend. It had happened to her once already, she didn't want to experience it again. Marisa then rummaged through her pockets and pulled out the watch.

"Heh, might even use you to get out from here... Nah...," Marisa uttered while looking at the faintly ticking and beautifully crafted watch in her hands. A moment went by as she was absorbed in thought while looking at the watch until the sudden sound of clinking cups and a teapot made her snap out of it and swipe the watch back into her pocket. Alice walked back into the living room and placed the cups down onto the table. She then followed by pouring tea to two of the three cups she had laid down before sitting down herself.

"So how were you planning to get her not to completely freak out on me?" Marisa asked while looking at her cup full of tea. Alice took a sip from her own cup and then looked at Marisa.

"By telling her the truth. How what you've done has been a necessity. And that I was only bad mouthing you because I has suspected you," Alice responded calmly.

"Yeah? Well I remember how you used to tell me that revealing my secrets to Reimu's mother would be the end of our relationship. And after knowing the both of them I can safely say that Reimu is much less tolerant of these things than her mother," Marisa insisted with the hint of panic creeping onto her face.

"Look, you just have to have faith. She's been your friend for years in the end. I'd suspect that that would mean something to her," Alice responded with a little frustrated sigh.

"Wouldn't be so sure about that," Marisa thought to herself but decided to keep her thoughts to herself as she lifted the cup and took a sip from her tea. The moment continued in silence as Alice enjoyed her tea and Marisa tried to do the same although the stress of thinking about what Reimu would do upon seeing her prevented her from getting any enjoyment from her drink. That being said when they finally heard footsteps coming from the wooden surface of the terrace Marisa almost spat out the tea in her mouth. Alice stared at Marisa for a second, let out a deep sigh and then stood up from the couch and walked out from the living room to get the door. At this point Marisa was hoping that this all would just be a bad dream and that she would wake up in the morning from her own bed. But she was out of luck. Alice opened the door and as soon as she did she and Reimu locked eyes with one another. Reimu had lifted her hand to knock on the door and was a little surprised to see Alice opening it before she could even knock. The two stared at each other for a moment before Alice broke the silence.

"Are you feeling better already?" She asked with calm tone and look on her face.

"Uhhh, yeah. Still have a little headache but I'll manage. Thank for asking. Why did you tell me to meet you here?" Reimu managed to utter while looking a little flustered.

"There are things we need to discuss. Come on inside and you'll see for yourself what I'm talking about," Alice said and signed Reimu to follow her inside. Reimu looked at Alice with mix of curiosity and confusion on her face before stepping in. Alice then closed the door behind Reimu as she turned to look at her.

"Go on to the living room. There's someone who you should meet as soon as possible," Alice said and looked how Reimu tilted her head a little before turning towards living room and walking to the doorway. When Reimu reached the threshold of the living room she stopped upon seeing a familiar face staring back at her from the living room couch. Marisa stared at Reimu with a little frightened look on her face. And that was way too much emotion than she would have wanted to show. The two stared at each other for a good while until Alice walked from the vestibule, past Reimu and into the living room. Reimu then locked eyes with Alice like demanding for an explanation.

"Alice, what is this? I thought that she... that you...," Reimu stammered in confusion.

"*Sigh Look just... sit down, take some tea and we will explain everything to you. Let's talk through things," Alice tried to calm the quickly heating scene down but to no avail. Reimu turned away from Alice and looked at Marisa again.

"You. You knew my mother. You... have you been lying to me? All these years? Were the things Rumia and she said true? Were they? ANSWER ME," Reimu bombarded Marisa with questions with furious look on her face as she approached her from the doorway. Marisa stood up from the couch in a small panic.

"Reimu, please, calm down. I haven't lied to you," Marisa tried but Reimu was only getting more irritated and cut Marisa short.

"You haven't? Then what's all this talk about you knowing my parents? And murders? You better be honest here. Who are you?" Reimu hissed as she walked closer to Marisa who in turn tried to keep her distance to Reimu.

"Reimu, listen. I haven't lied to you. I will tell you everything, just listen. What you heard was not true. I'm still Marisa, your friend," Marisa tried to calm Reimu down but she still showed no signs of calming down to listen what she had to say.

"Is that what you told to my mother as well?" Reimu retorted but before she could take another step closer to Marisa she was grabbed from behind by Alice and dragged back a meter or two.

"Whoa, whoa, calm down Reimu. We're only trying to tell you what actually happened," Alice almost yelled as she tried to keep Reimu from starting anything. She especially didn't want a fight to break out in her house. Reimu struggled against Alice for a moment but after a moment she stopped and turned her head to look at Alice.

"What I said, back at the village. It was exaggeration and a result of my own suspicions. I got her to seem worse than she actually is," Alice said once Reimu had calmed down enough so that Alice could be sure that she would listen.

"Then tell me what she _actually _is," Reimu let out with a mix of frustration and anger.

"She...," Alice started and glanced at Marisa. She was seemingly panicking, breathing heavily and contemplating a possible escape.

"She's the same person as you've known. She just... has more history than you'd think," Alice said and slowly let go or Reimu when she felt that she didn't struggle to get at Marisa anymore.

"I might have accused her of the murder that happened weeks ago but she was not behind it. I only accused her because I knew of her past. And was afraid that she might try to do something stupid," Alice started but this didn't immediately put Reimu at ease.

"Can you just cut the crap and get to the point. What do you know that I or the others don't," Reimu spat out again while switching glances between Marisa and Alice. Alice then took a quick glance at Marisa and then back at reimu before sighing slightly.

"Marisa is much older than you might think. In fact she already over hundred years old. I do not know the circumstances in which it happened but she ended up becoming a student of an evil spirit, Mima. I think you might have heard of her," Alice started to explain. Reimu was constantly cocking her head from side to side as if she didn't believe Alice's story.

"They had a deal with each other. Marisa would help Mima to end the Hakurei bloodline and Mima would help Marisa to find immortality. Sadly Mima filled her end of the bargain and gave Marisa means to take over bodies of other people," Alice continued with expressionless look on her face. At that moment Reimu turned her head towards Marisa who wanted seemingly sink and disappear into the ground below her feet.

"The body you see before yourself is not Marisa's original, nor is it even the first she took over, although, that will be the last she will ever have," Alice said to almost disgusted looking Reimu who then took a step closer to Marisa who took one back herself.

"You, I thought you were at least honest with your practises in arcane," Reimu said with accusatory tone. Marisa's only responce was yet another step backwards with scared and a little ashamed look on her face.

"Look, nevertheless she and your mother ended up becoming friends and Marisa changed her ways. Her contribution to the balance of Gensokyo was invaluable," Alice continued and grabbed Reimu by her shoulder but Reimu was quick to swipe Alice's hand away and glare at her.

"Did my mother know of her? That she killed people for her own gains?" Reimu asked with hateful glare in her eyes while looking at Alice before turninbg her gaze back towards Marisa.

"No, I didn't want to disappoint her. After all the trust she had given me," Marisa finally managed to utter while looking at her feet.

"Well, you have disappointed me. Worse is that I had never even thought to doubt you," Reimu retorted and pointed her purification rod at Marisa who winced a little at the sight of this. Alice however stepped forward again to hold Reimu back.

"Reimu, cut it off. You still don't know the full story," Alice said. Reimu then quickly turned her head towards Alice to once again give her that hateful stare.

"Your mother, Marisa was there when she died. They fought against Rumia to stop her from causing an incident. And I have to mention that your mother indirectly was one of the few responsible for Rumia's rage. You had already born back then but of course you don't remember becuase you were just an infant," Alice continued her story to Reimu.

"Your father died before either of them, Marisa nor your mother could do anything and only a short time later your mother died before Marisa's own eyes. Yet, was she so selfish as to save herself and leave all that behind? No. She made the ultimate sacrifice to stop Rumia. And to save you. You owe your life to her. You could at least acknowledge that," Alice said with much more strict tone and look on her face. The look on Reimu's face however turned to offended all of a sudden.

"You claim she did the ultimate sacrifice, yet she only sacfificed a stolen body only to steal yet a new one. I'd have a little respect if she thought about her sins and accepted death there and then. But no. She expects herself to be entitled to take a life of someone she was supposed to protect. We youkai hunters don't do this for the prise, the titles nor the honour. We do it because we care. When you add any agenda to that other than doing it for the good of your heart, you're no better than the youkai you exterminate," Reimu responded with dead cold stare locked to Alice's eyes. Alice then cocked her head a little bit with irritated look on her face. She then took her hand away from Reimu's shoulder. Then out of the blue she gave Reimu a slap to her face which resulted Reimu staggering a little and holding her cheek in a shock.

"Any other agenda? With your greed I wouldn't talk anything about agenda's behind youkai extermination," Alice said with much more pissed tone and look on her face. It was at that point when Marisa saw a familiar silver glimmer coming from Reimu's hand. And upon a longer glance she gave towards her hand that was concealed from Alice was when she realized that she was holding a pair of needles and charms in her hand. Marisa instinctively took another step backwards but this made her to lurch and fall down because of the threshold on the doorway to Alice's working room. Marisa fell to her back and this made Alice's and Reimu attention to turn towards her. Marisa held her head for a moment before pushing her upper body from the floor.

"Are you okay?" Alice asked while looking at Marisa who was rubbing the back of her head.

"Of course she is. It's not like she's a human," Reimu bridled which was only met with yet another glare from Alice. However as Marisa started to get back up again the looks on Alice's and Reimu's face changed all of a sudden.

"Marisa, what's that?" Alice then asked and took a few steps closer to Marisa who looked up towards Alice with a little confused look on her face.

"Wha-," Marisa uttered before looking around herself to see what Alice was talking about. Behind her her eyes found yet another silver glimmer but this one was far different from Reimu's needles. It was the watch. It had fallen from Marisa's pocket when she had fallen to the ground.

"Oh shit," Marisa thought to herself, grabbed the watch in haste and stood up from the ground. The looks on the faces of Alice and Reimu were shocked and baffled. Marisa looked at the watch in her hand and then back up to Reimu and Alice. She was trying to conjure up something to say but she was unable.

"Wait, if you have that then Flandre...," Alice started but was interrupted by Reimu who said, "Wait, where's Flandre anyway? And why do you have that watch?" Alice and Reimu were starting to approach Marisa who was starting to back away.

"Marisa? What is goin on? Tell me," Alice said with serious look on her face.

"Stop, stop, stop, stop, STOP! Both of you, please just stop," Marisa managed to yell out but both of them kept on approaching. Marisa even caught a glimpse of the needles Reimu still was holding in her hands. Cold sweat was starting to form onto Marisa's face when her eyes once again glanced at the silver surface of the watch. The situation seemed desperate. At least on her mind. She wasn't ready to deal with all of this at once. She didn't want to deal with this all at once. She took one final glance at Alice and Reimu.

"I'm sorry," She uttered before she opened the watch.

"Marisa don't," Alice yelled before Reimu charged forward to try to grab the watch from Marisa's hands but a mere moment after Marisa opened the watch a blinding light surrounded her which forced Reimu to stop and cover her eyes. Reimu backed away covering her face with her arms but as soon as the light had appeared it disappeared as well. Once their eyes stopped hurting and Alice and Reimu could see again not only did they realize that the light was gone but so was Marisa as well.

"What in the...," Reimu uttered with shocked look on her face.

"This is bad... really bad, " Alice continued while sharing the same look on her face as on Reimu's. Both of them were absolutely stunned.

Marisa on the other hand wasn't released from her stress. She now found herself like falling through endless void of blinding light. She couldn't open her eyes. Every attempt was futile as her body wouldn't allow her to look around herself. Soon enough she found herself screaming as she kept on falling. At least it felt like falling. The moment she had opened the watch felt like she had been ripped from the ground and tossed away. She however couldn't complain. She could only hope that she would re-emerge somewhere safe. Saying however that she didn't feel quilty for what she did wouldn't be true. She did feel quilty for leaving everyone behind and trying to get away but she couldn't help it. It was in her nature, to run away from overwhelming situations. She didn't like it, nor was she proud of it but she couldn't deny it either. She could only think how Reimu and Alice were feeling. Seeing her betray them before their very eyes. But to be honest she couldn't even say for sure if they felt betrayed. She just assumed they would. Her thoughts were interrupted however by a sensation of flying through window and tingling as if the glass was hitting her skin. The blinding light around her faded and she finally felt a ground below her hands and feet again. She was laying on a solid surface again.

"Did I do it? Did I really jump through time? Am I safe?" Marisa thought to herself as she tried to feel what was around her with her arms. She was still too scared to look around herself but when she didn't catch any notable objects with her hands other than few small pebbles she was forced to open her eyes and look where she was. At first she couldn't tell. It was too dark. Marisa tried to make out any distinguishable shapes from the darkness but was unable. She was still a little scared but managed to force herself to push herself up from the stone floor that she now realized felt quite cold. Marisa pushed her upper body up but even still she couldn't make out anything from the darkness. She then stopped to think about the situation she was in. And it was then when she heard it. Breathing. Slow and a little raspy breathing. Marisa's heart fell into her stomach when she realized that where ever she was, she wasn't alone. Marisa could tell that the breathing came from her left so she started slowling moving to her right. She didn't know if her presence was already known but she still wanted to be safe. All seemed calm, although immensly nerve racking until she she felt something under her foot. She couldn't stop her foot landing fast enough and soon heard deafening crunch in otherwise almost complete silence.

"Shit," Marisa thought to herself and tried to stay as still as possible. The breathing stopped immediately when crunch could be heard which Marisa took as a bad sign. Marisa's own bretahing was starting to get notably faster and dangerously audible as she watched how two red dots appeared from the darkness. Red dots that she soon learned were eyes.

"You... you came back... I've been lonely again," could suddenly be heard uttered from the direction of the two red dots. Marisa's heart was starting to race. The voice that had just spoken was soft yet gravely, like the whoever had just spoken hadn't uttered a single word in ages. Marisa could feel her heart racing even faster as she took yet another step backwards. There was another crunch. She stopped. She had no idea what she had stepped on again.

"You left me alone... But now when you're here again... let us play," the voice uttered again before Marisa had to cover her ears as a deafening screech filled the space she was in. It was starting to become clear to Marisa where she was but she had no idea when or why. The one who had just spoken to her, it had to be Flandre. Or at least some version of her. She however didn't get too much time to think about it when the two red dots disappeared all of a sudden. Marisa's heart skipped a beat when she realized how quiet it had become. Then suddenly out of nowhere she felt something hitting her side with such force that all the air from her lungs was knocked out and she was sent flying to the other side of the space they were in. Marisa hit the rough surface of what she thought was wall and fell to the ground where she felt how she crushed more of that stuff from earlier. Marisa took a few quick gasps before standing up. She was surprised and shocked of what had just happened but she was still relatively okay. She however still couldn't see anything in the pitch darkness so she brought her hand forward and conjured a small light ball to illuminate her surroundings. However the moment she lit the light ball, it managed to only light up something red and white coming her way before she was knocked to the ground again interrupting the light spell. Marisa could feel how someone was holding her down. She heard that raspy breathing just above her head. She however had had enough. With a quick jerk Marisa managed to free her right arm, bring it up against what she thought was Flandre's chest and blast her away from on top of her. When she finally felt she was free again she got up as quickly as she could which proved to be quite difficult because of all this unknown rubble on the floor and the pitch darkness. She however had no time to be careful of not tripping over since she could also hear Flandre recovering from the blast she had given to her. Marisa was just about to conjure a new light ball to help her see but that was now interrupted by a sudden tremors that made her trip and fall to the floor.

"Wha...? What now!?" Marisa manage to utter while desperately trying to get up from the floor which proved futile with all the rubble shifting and stirring under her. It also seemed that Flandre was also having trouble, at least it sounded like that with all the grunts and sounds of struggle. Marisa was already fearing if the whole place would come crashing down. But then the tremors stopped as suddenly as they had appeared. Just like that it was quiet again.

"Wh-what? W-where am I?" Marisa suddenly could hear being uttered. She recognized the voice immediately. It was Flandre again. But what in the world was she saying? It was like she had all of sudden completely forgotten their little skirmish before the quakes. One thing she found strange however was that the voice she had just heard seemed to come from different direction where she had thought Flandre was. Marisa stood still silently. She then brought her hand up again and summoned her light spell once again and this time she managed to lit the room properly. But what she saw wasn't what she expected. The room she was in, it was the basement dungeon of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. And before her she could see the room that was littered with bones and skeletons. In the middle was the ever so not comfortable looking dilapidated queen sized bed and on both sides was standing Flandre. Two of them.

"What, what, what, what the hell is going on?" Marisa managed to utter as the other Flandre looked as surrprised and confused as her while the other looked like a rabid dog. Marisa didn't manage to get an answer though because the same Flandre that had attacked her before suddenly charged at her again making Marisa wince from surprise canceling her spell in the process. But before Flandre could lay her claws onto Marisa the room was illuminated briefly by a flash of light. The other Flandre had fired a beam knocking the original Flandre to the opposite side wall with a bright flash. Marisa took a step back in shock as the room fell dark again. She could hear a shuffling of feet and few grunts as the Flandre who had just tried to attack her was recovering from the blast. Marisa couldn't tell what was going on but soon the room was starting to become briefly lit by sudden flashes accompanied by crashes and booms as the projectiles and beams starting flying around. Marisa tried to take cover by ducking onto the floor.

"Oh gods, why did I ever even accepted that watch from her?" Marisa thought to herself while covering her head as the bullets and projectiles flew around. But all of a sudden a low rumble and a beam of light that was clearly not produced by the projectiles made Marisa snap out of it. She lifted her gaze from the ground to look what it was and saw how something she assumed was door had budged a little letting some light in. It was enough for her to make out what was happening in the room and by the looks of things both of the Flandres had noticed it too. The Flandre who had tried to attack Marisa in the first place suddenly grabbed the other Flandre when she had been caught of guard by the opening of the door, tossing her towards the door. Unfortunately Marisa happened to be between the two so while being flung towards the door Flandre crashed into Marisa in the process sending them both flying through the now slightly open doorway.

Marisa hit the stone floor quite hard as she and Flandre flew through the door. The sudden increase in the lighting around her forced Marisa to close her eyes for a moment again but this time the lighting wasn't too strong so her eyes adjusted quickly. Marisa layed on the floor for a good moment until she heard a familiar voice yelling her name.

"Marisa," She heard Reimu yelling. Marisa's eyes burst wide open and she practically jumped up from the floor in shock and fear of what she had gone through just before jumping through time. She backed away from the source of the voice out of instinct. Marisa ended up tripping and falling to her back as she backed away into the room where she had just come from. She didn't even care if the initial Flandre was standing now in the doorway looking curious. Marisa just instinctively wanted away from Reimu's voice. Marisa fell to the floor again breathing heavily and staring out from the slightly open door. Through it she could see Reimu, Patchouli, Sanae, Remilia, Meiling, Eirin and many others looking at the situation.

"What the hell... what, what, what, what, what in the world is going on?" Marisa thought to herself in confusion.

"Where am I...? No... When am I?" Marisa thought while grabbing her head. She had no idea why she had ended up here. And when this 'here' even was. Marisa's head was starting to hurt. Nothing made sense in that situation. Why there were two Flandres? Why had she ended up there? She didn't even know if she was in the future or in the past.

"Oh gods, what is going on? Am I in the future? Is the incident resolved? If so, why are there two of her? And why is Eirin... here?" Marisa thought to herself and suddenly came into a realization. The tremors, Eirin being there. It all snapped into place like a lockpick to a lock. Marisa's eyes burst wide open again in realization. She knew exactly where she was. Marisa stood up from the floor and looked around herself. This was no mere coincidence.

"I... I was in that... shadow... what ever it was, parallel world between these tremors. It is happening now," Marisa muttered as she looked around herself. Her eyes were glued onto the room around her. It looked pretty trashed now after the two Flandres had briefly gone at each other but no major damage was done. The bones were just scattered a little more.

"What on earth...?" Marisa could mutter when she finally registered the actual sheer amount of bones all laying around. She had visited this place back during the Scarlet Mist Incident and back then there had been no bones. So where had all of them come from? Marisa had no idea so she decided to inspect one a little larger pile of bones a little closer to see if there would be any clues. She knelt down and looked at the bones. They all seemed pretty badly damaged. Some were scarred, others were scorched. That was the only similiarity they seemed to have. Marisa was even more confused. It didn't make sense. How could piles of bones just appear out of nowhere. Marisa was rubbing her chin and about was to stand up when the movement of her head and the light coming from the slightly open door revealed something from the pile. A tine glimmer of light. Something was reflecting the light from the doorway. Marisa quickly dag into the pile reaching into it trying to get her hands onto it. When she finally did feel herself grasping it she pulled the object out and opened her hand to see what it was. Marisa's heart must have skipped a dozen beats and her stomach grew icy when she saw a beautifully engraved silver watch in her hand. The world seemed to grind to a halt around her as she dropped the watch back into the pile. Marisa's heart rate and breathing started to get rapid as everything started to click onto their places. But even so she didn't want to believe it. She couldn't believe it. She didn't want to acknowledge that she was looking at a mass grave... of herselves. Marisa looked around herself. The piles of bones laying all around her, surrounding her. It was all too much. She had to get away. More importantly she needed to warn everyone back in her real time. Her personal fears could all go to hell in her thoughts as she stood up, pulled the watch from her pocket and opened it.

"I don't care how much you loathe me Reimu, you will have to listen to me... for all our sake," Marisa uttered before a blinding flash yet again covered casting her out from this moment accompanied with yet a new wave of tremors. Marisa however couldn't feel them because she was already gone. She couldn't feel herself shaking the pillars of reality as they desperately tried to hold themselves together. And even still, as the tremors had stopped again and everything had gone quiet there was something Marisa had missed. Something someone else had not. In that very same room a small hand shuffled through the piles of bones and from deeper within, deeper than Marisa had dag, pulled out a dusty locked book.

**Author's side note**

Jesus it feels good to be back again. You thought I had forgotten and moved on with my life already, hadn't you. :) Well I'm not. I'm keeping my promise of finishing this story and here's the fourth part. Yeah, I know, I said that this would be the final part of this story but here I'm again underestimating the actual length and effort I have to put into this. So the only promise I'll make from now on is that this story will be completed. In how many parts? I don't know. I'm aiming for the next one to be the grand finale but... you know me. :^) Anyhow, all the hints and pieces are on place now. Now it's time for me to get back to writing and give you the ending that I've been planning for two years now. I wonder if you're starting to catch up. ;) Also if any of you are interested in the military service I went through and what it contained, I made a video about it to my YouTube channel. If you want to check it out, here's a link to that video: watch?v=G0FIyZqNgb4&t=548s Anyway, I'll be seeing ya.


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